The Empire
by TricksterThief
Summary: Reborn didn't know what he expected from the Future. But what he got, wasn't what he had imagined in the slightest. cross-post on ao3
1. Chapter 1

**The Empire**

 _noun_. [ **em** -pah _yuh_ r]

 _1\. supreme power in governing; imperial power; sovereignty:_

 _2\. supreme control; absolute sway:_

 _3\. a powerful and important enterprise or holding of large scope that is controlled by a single person, family, or group of associates:_

 _ **Arc I: The Sentinels**_

 **XX**

 **Chapter One: The Future...?**

 **XX**

 **Yamamoto** Takeshi wasn't as stupid as people liked to believe. He knew basically everyone thought he didn't have more than two brain cells to rub together and that he thought everything was a game. But really, Yamamoto only acted like that because it made his Sky ( _hishomehishearthis_ everything - _wheredidyougocomebackplase)_ laugh at best or freak out (buthewasn'thereanymore _ohgod_ -) at worst. It made people underestimate him; made them think he wasn't worth their time.

But he was the Vongola Rain Guardian for a god damn reason, and it wasn't because he was a pretty face.

"Gokudera isn't back yet," Reborn announced nonchalantly. Yamamoto slanted a glance over at the baby hitman (there was so much blood; his Sky was _screaming; everything was on fire; what was going on how could this be happening ohgodohgodohgo-_ ), and merely grinned, masking everything.

"Maa, if you're so worried I can go out and look for him?" Yamamoto posed it as a careless question, letting none of his actual emotions bleed through. It was only because he _had_ spent so much time around an older and much scarier Reborn, that he was able to slip easily into the role _this_ Reborn expected even in the future.

(he was so young, and he kind of wanted to laugh as much as he wanted to scream - _he knew nothing_ )

Yamamoto was actually much more worried about the fact that Hayato _hadn't_ come back yet, then he was letting the little hitman know. There had been a flare of _something_ (sowarm - socomforting - _wheredidyougo - haveyoucomeback? - whereareyouwhereareyouwherear-_ ) earlier in the day and it had nearly set his carefully preserved balance over the edge.

It had vanished not soon after ( _wheredidyougocomebackpleaseineedyou_ ), and he was carefully avoiding the gaping hole the feeling had left behind (it had never left so wh _y did it hurt so much_ ).

He was starting to slip again. The gaping hole was seething and threatening to take over, leaving nothing but overflowing rivers and tumultuous waves, causing more damage than soothing the pain away. His carefully guarded mask was beginning to crumble around the edges again, and Gokudera wasn't there; _no one was there_ ; what was he supposed to do?

(comebackcomeb _ackcoMEBACKCOMEBACKDONTLEAVEMENOWHEREAREYOUGOINGCOM_ -)

"That sounds like a good idea, Takeshi." Reborn's face immediately tightened and his inner flame flared to life, straining against the Arcobaleno's iron clad control and begging to be released so it could _smother the threat_. He watched the newcomer warily, sorely tempted to just let go of his flames and let them do what they wanted. _He hadn't realized the woman had been there until she had spoken_.

"Hahahaha, really?" Yamamoto laughed, arm raised to rub the back of his neck in a habitual move, and eyes crinkling shut as he grinned. "Gokudera might get mad though, Marianna." Reborn twitched at the easy way Yamamoto pronounced the foreign name, not even a hint of stuttering or accent evident, proving long term usage of the name.

The blonde woman merely smiled calmly, and the baby hitman noticed irritably the tension in the future Yamamoto's shoulders eased at the expression. "He might yell at you for a bit, but if he's actually in trouble? It would be a good idea to go check up on him at least," Marianna responded lightly, placing a soothing hand on the swordsman's arm. Her eyes darkened into a somewhat stormy countenance as she added, "Especially if he headed where I think he did."

Yamamoto's face immediately blanked, but he didn't tense, making Reborn eye the hand on the man's arm with suspicion. He was starting to believe this Marianna was a Rain Attribute, and a damn good one at that. But since he couldn't sense what flavor of flame she had, he couldn't get a conclusive read on her. He could sense her flames lurking beneath her skin like some kind of lazy beast waiting for the right moment to strike, and it sent his hackles rising, and with it his flames.

The urge to _smother_ was great and continued to try his control every second.

"I'll go look for Gokudera, then," Yamamoto said, smile back on his face as if it had never vanished in the first place. Marianna gave the arm under her a hand a squeeze before retracting her hand, calm smile still in place on her face. ( _smothersmothersMOTHERSMOTHERSMOTHERREMOVETHETHREAT_ ) Reborn clamped down hard on his flames, face betraying none of the inner turmoil.

It didn't stop him from feeling like she could sense it like some kind of bloodhound hot on a trail, with the way she turned her smile on him, eyes sparking with a wry amusement.

Reborn turned to Yamamoto, keeping the woman in his senses, and simply stared at the adult ( _he had destroyed the innocence of a child and he could see the brittleness in the Rain's eyes_ ). Yamamoto huffed out a laugh (what he was laughing at the hitman couldn't seem to figure out), and said simply, as if he wasn't going out alone in the hostile airs of a hunt for his head, "I'll be back."

When Reborn turned to see what Marianna was doing, he found she was gone.

( _smotherhersmotherher - FIND HER_ )

 **XX**

 **Marianna** Crepuscolo seriously wished Gokudera hadn't gone to visit the grave. She wasn't enough to keep Takeshi on that thin ledge and not threatening to slip off the edge. No one was even sure which edge he'd fall off if he did. The blonde scowled and raked a hand roughly through her hair; she had felt that burst of sky flames as miniscule as it had been when compared to what she was used to feeling, but _it had been there_.

And that was dangerous on so many different levels it wasn't even funny. The fact it had been smothered not long after its first appearance, didn't bode well. She could only hope the CEDEF agent had found the flame user and was the cause for the smothering, rather than the harsh alternative. Letting out a gusty sigh, she wished her Sky was here; she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand being around a teetering on Discord Rain and a Hostile Sun without the stabilizing effect of her Sky.

( _he wasn't moving whywasn'themoving ohgodnowhatwasshegoingto_ think _can't let her see ohgod he was bleeding there was so much blood someonewasscreamingwhere'dyougo come back don't leave Ta -_ )

Except her Sky wasn't fully stable any more was she? None of them were anymore, really. But they were better off than the Vongola Guardians. ( _Lambo was hugging the toilet bowl again - Hibari had vanished - Mukuro was nowhere to be found - Gokudera walked around like a ghost - Chrome never seemed to stop crying - Ryohei had gone silent - Takeshi flopped between manic and eerily calm - everyone was falling apart at the seams there was nothing they could do - comebackcomebackcomeback - weneedyouimnotenough -_ please)

Marianna slumped against the wall, cradling her head in her hands and trying to steady her breathing. Her flames moved restlessly under her skin clamoring for her Sky to help soothe away the pain, but it was reaching out uselessly. She couldn't fall apart, not now. Her Sky would be here soon; she said she would be.

There was a sudden wash of muffled Sky Flames, and Marianna was on her feet instantly and moving in the direction it was emanating from before her mind had even fully caught up with itself. ( _it wasn't Ta- but there was warmthsafetyprotection comebackcomebackcomeback you'rehomewelcomeback_ ) The closer she got the more she could hear and sense. Reborn was there ( _somuchblood whowasscreaming whythis anything but this Jes-_ ), as was Takeshi ( _whyareyoulaughing whyaren'tyoulaughing stopsmiling it's not real_ ) and there was the source of those flames ( _warmthprotectionsafety_ ) and a spark of an _angry_ Storm ( _unrelenting where'syourfire come_ on _fightback_ ).

" _WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING?_ " the Storm raged and Marianna noted it was a voice much younger but still familiar, but that didn't make any sense. " _WHY DID THE TENTH END UP IN SUCH A THING?_ "

There was a high pitched screech Marianna hadn't heard in _years_ and a pathetically terrified voice yelped, " _Gokudera-kun!_ "

A beat of silence and then Takeshi said, voice solemn and _aching_ with grief, " _I'm sorry_."

Marianna's tenuous thread of patience snapped. " _It's not your goddamn fault, Takeshi_!" the blonde snarled as she stalked into the room they were gathered in, fury practically palpable in the air around her. Takeshi looked at her with a startled face, obviously thrown by the words and the uncharacteristic anger, especially directed at him.

"But I-" the hitman started, but the blonde didn't let him finish, ignoring the others in the room who were watching in a sort of confused fascination.

"No buts! It's not _yours_ or _Hayato's_ or _anyone else_ 's faults! Place the blame where it _fucking belongs_ , with _Byakuran_ , _do you understand me_?" The room was darkening around the edges and there was a feral kind of anger perpetuating the air and making it _scream_ dangerous. Marianna had Yamamoto's face held in her hand, squishing his cheeks together with her grip and eyes sparking with a righteous fury that had the younger man flinching back despite himself.

He swallowed and his flames purred beneath his skin ( _backbackbackhe'sbackhecameback - notalone - backbackbackbackbac-_ ), and he managed to say around his squished cheeks, "I _understand_." Marianna's eyes pierced into his, lips twisted in a furious snarl and flames threatening to burst forth and _make him believe_. There was another beat of silence, as if everyone was holding their breath, before Marianna's face cleared and she let go of Yamamoto's face.

"Crepuscolo is correct," Reborn said, cringing at even agreeing with the unknown woman, his flames hissing unhappily under his skin. "The enemy is the Millefiore Famiglia, and the most shocking thing about them is their tremendous fire power." Tsuna and Gokudera were looking at him now, though the latter was eyeing Marianna with a suspicious, yet thoughtful gaze at the same time. His student was looking pale, but Reborn couldn't really afford to coddle Tsuna this time. "Worse yet, their goal doesn't stop at victory over seizing the rings or taking control."

Yamamoto picked up the thread here, face serious and solemn, but eyes like the calm before a storm, "When our Headquarters first surrendered, the Millefiore summoned an envoy from the Vongola side with the intention of entering in negotiations."

Marianna's lip curled and she griped, "Not that they had any plans on _actually_ entering negotiations. Bastards."

Tsuna looked like he wanted to throw up, and Gokudera was looking especially grim, and Yamamoto continued, "They killed the envoy instead. No matter how many times we've sent repeated appeals, there's never been a response; soon our people were being killed one right after another. That was their true goal." The Rain Guardian was unperturbed by Tsuna's face growing even paler as he talked, but it was more because he was lost in his memories, more than because he didn't care.

"They intend to kill every last person standing on the Vongola side. They want complete annihilation."

Marianna eyed the younger Tsuna ( _somuchblood nonononononono don't leave Ta-_ ), wondering as to why he was here. She knew of the ten-year bazooka of course, but it had been much longer than five minutes, much like with Reborn, so what the hell was going on? She wanted her Sky. The initial feeling of the younger Tsuna's flames had vanished and now she was left with an aching want for her _own_ Sky; she wanted the feeling of ( _peacecomfort i'mhereeverythingwillbeokay bestrongyou'restrong warmthhomesafety iloveyou_ ).

"That's not all. Everyone related to you all, even your friends, will be targeted," Reborn added somewhat callously. His flames were still straining against his hold begging to be released so they could _smothersmothersmother_ but at the same time they wanted to _soothesoothehealthepain_. It was an unwanted contradiction, and it was making him irritated.

Tsuna looked at him with such a frightened and worried expression stammering, "Then...then even those of us who came from the past will be in danger...?"

Marianna frowned at the boy. Had he really been this dopey at this age? It didn't seem to mesh with her memories of him. But then her memories tended to be stained with blood and pain and ohgod what was she going to _think_ -

" _Don't get so worked up_ ," Reborn ordered sharply, the words directed at his student, but causing Marianna's own memories to stop cold before they could overwhelm her. "We haven't lost all hope yet." The blonde wondered if they ever had. Her Sky hadn't seemed to waver at all even in the face of his de- _somuchblood -_ no.

The Arcobaleno turned to Yamamoto, who was watching Marianna with concerned look, but still paying attention to the conversation, and started, "Yamamoto, the Family's Guardians are scattered, but you've gotten confirmation that they haven't been written off of yet, correct?"

The Rain Guardian's lips curled into a humorless grin, "Yes."

"Then there is only one thing you _can_ do, Dame-Tsuna," the baby hitman stated, making the brunette look at him with a confused stare. "Find and gather your Guardians." The resulting scream was expected, but it still made Reborn want to strangle is student. Honestly, had he taught the boy _nothing_? "The Bosses have done the same in every generation. When the Vongola are in dire straits, the _Sky_ will always call upon his six Guardians and overcome the difficulties."

Marianna was pretty sure that wasn't entirely true for all Bosses of the Vongola, but she digressed. "B-But what can that accomplish? Just gathering seven people...," Tsuna stammered, still looking a little green around the edges. Marianna really didn't remember Tsuna being this dopey before. She glanced over at Yamamoto, but he had his eyes closed and she knew exactly what he was doing.

Even muted, Tsunayoshi Sawada's Sky flames produced a soothing call of Harmony that was extremely difficult to ignore. Takeshi was basking in the wisps that he could, the call of _warmthsafety_ home a balm to his tattered flames and widening the ledge he was standing on. She wasn't even Harmonized with the child, but she could sense the fact his flames were seeking out for the others. They were latched onto Gokudera tightly, as if afraid the Storm would vanish, but only coiled loosely around Takeshi.

"The fighting methods of this era are special," Reborn answered. "It's because of that, that the seven of you have your own parts to play."

Marianna noticed almost immediately the tipping point for Tsuna, as his flames flared frantically and his voice raised in pitch and volume, "You're not making any sense! Didn't you say all our friends are being hunted down with the Vongola? Doesn't that mean mom and Kyoko-chan, and everyone else are in danger too?"

In a flurry of movement Marianna was crouched in front of the teenager and forcing him to look at her with a grip on his chin. " _Be calm_." Tsuna's wide eyes stared into the hazel eyes of the unknown woman, her face a mask of soothing calm, and in that instance Tsuna thought she was like a mature version of _Chrome_. The teen felt himself calm down from his earlier panic, though he could still feel it coloring his thoughts and feelings. It was just a sort of quiet panic now instead of a full blown hysterical panic.

The blonde woman's brow furrowed the slightest bit, but she let go of his chin and instead ran a hand through his hair, scratching lightly at his scalp in the process. "Good," she said lightly, straightening and pretending she couldn't feel Reborn's venomous glare trained on her figure. "We've already set up precautions for this situation."

Yamamoto rejoined the conversation looking more settled than he had in a long while ( _his grin was crazed and he laughed as his opponents bled out at his feet - his face was serene as he cut swaths through bodies, looking as if he had no care in the world_ \- _then he was hugging the toilet bowl puking his guts out and sobbing brokenly, sickened with himself and on the brink of Rejection_ ), "While I set out to meet Lal Mirch, I-pin and Lambo went out to find Kyoko and Haru."

Tsuna let out a shocked noise and Reborn took over the explanation, keeping a wary eye on Marianna, who had a hand still threaded in Tsuna's hair, "We're waiting to hear back from them for the moment. However, for Maman it's bad timing. She and Iemitsu left for a holiday five days ago to Italy; we haven't been able to get a hold of them yet."

Which was utter bullshit, but Marianna didn't bother correcting the assumption. As far as Reborn was aware that was the truth, and until her Sky got here, she wasn't going to tell him. "Bianchi and Fuuta have gone to gather information, but as for our other allies...," Yamamoto trailed off, a dead look taking over his face and making Tsuna and even Gokudera flinch back.

"In the last two days, the Tomaso Family and Mochida have gone missing. Shamal disappeared months ago with no trace to be found, and all the others you have come to know within the last ten years have been eliminated," Reborn picked up from Yamamoto's trailed sentence. "Even Yamamoto's father."

The moment the baby hitman said those words he came close to actually regretting them. The room seemed to freeze instantly and Marianna's smile was glacier level in iciness as she looked the hitman in the eye and purred, "And _why_ would you think that Tsuyoshi-san needed to be mentioned?" The very air around the blonde seemed to warp and reveal the predator lurking beneath her skin just _waiting_ for a moment to pounce.

( _she remembered the day of Tsuyoshi-san's death vividly - there had been so much blood and it had been almost impossible to tell the identity of the body - Takeshi had come dangerously close to Rejecting his Flames entirely and it had only been the combined efforts of Tsuna and Ta- that he hadn't gone off the deep end or gone on a rampage - his screams would forever haunt her memories and she couldn't seem to remember the old man's smile clearly anymore_ )

"Marianna."

Slowly the overwhelming presence in the room subsided, leaving behind only hints of feral animosity and only Marianna was left glaring at Reborn coldly. "I believe that's enough for tonight," she announced, voice frigid and as if there had never been any warmth in it to begin with. "Takeshi, I'll be in our room." With that parting word the woman stalked out the room, the lethality of her steps evident even to Tsuna.

"Dad is a tender point; it'd be best to avoid mentioning him ever again," Yamamoto said after she had left, a _very_ clear reprimand in his voice and his eyes held their own lethality as he glowered down at Reborn. However, the hitman wasn't really paying attention to the man, thoughts locked directly on Marianna's last words. She had said _our_ room, not _my_ room. A lot of things suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense now.

 **XX**

 **Tsunayoshi** wasn't really sure what to make of his situation. Gokudera was really the only thing keeping him even relatively calm. The older Yamamoto was too weary and _strange_ for Tsuna to be completely at ease around, even though there was a niggling in the back of his head that even older it was still _his_ Takeshi. The less he thought about Reborn the better.

Marianna, however, was a different story.

The strange blonde woman was like nothing Tsuna had met before in any person of the female persuasion. Didn't look like anyone he had ever met either. Her skin was pale and smothered in freckles, while her hair was a pale blonde much different from his father's own golden color. Her features were also unmistakably foreign, and actually reminded him a bit of Dino, if he were to be honest.

But she carried herself with confidence and a danger that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Not even Bianchi had moved like that, for all that she was poisonous assassin. However, even though he knew she was dangerous and could probably murder him without a trace, he felt _safe_ with her. She might not have been able to calm him down completely, or get rid of his fear and panic, but she had _tried_ and it felt like a _mother_.

She had soothed his worries with a touch and few words and it had made him feel so _so-_

"Be careful." Tsuna jolted at the voice. He looked over at the blonde woman with wide eyes; he hadn't seen her at all since she had stormed out of the conversation last night. She was leaning against the wall, an unreadable look on her face and arms crossed over her stomach.

"I'll protect the Tenth!" Gokudera growled threateningly, but without any real heat to it.

Too the teen's surprise, she laughed. "Of that I have no doubt," Marianna responded, eyes glittering with amusement. Then her eyes cut over to Yamamoto and the amusement left like it had never been there. " _Come back_." Tsuna bit his lip, and Gokudera shifted awkwardly next to him. Both of them had picked up on the "our room" thing from last night, though they weren't entirely positive on the _exact_ nature of the two's relationship.

Yamamoto didn't say anything back, lips set in a grim line and without another word ushered the teens out of the base and led them to their destination. Tsuna chanced a glance back at Marianna, but she was already gone. Without thought, the brunette reached out and latched onto the bottom of Gokudera's shirt, who to his credit only flinched minutely at the move. Tsuna almost let go, but when his friend didn't react any further, he simply tightening his grip.

It wasn't that long before they reached a falling apart construction site and Yamamoto was explaining, an easy smile on his face, "These are the remains of the fifth construction site, and also the location of one of six entrances."

Gokudera's eyebrow twitched and he could feel his irritation spiking violently, and finally he burst out, "What did you mean about the Vongola Rings!?"

Tsuna blinked and then looked curiously over at the not his ( _yes he is_ ) Yamamoto, who was still smiling and seemed to not hear, as he said, "Let's go to Nami High first, alright?" Tsuna fought the urge to facepalm, letting go of his grip on Gokudera, whose anger spiked dangerously.

"HEY! Did you hear what I said?" the half-Italian roared, hands tightening into fists.

Yamamoto cocked his head over his shoulder to look at them, face curious, "Say what?"

Gokudera looked ready to throttle the hitman as he shouted, "The Vongola Rings! Why don't they exist in this era?"

Tsuna wanted to and didn't want to know the answer. "The rings were smashed and thrown away a while ago."

"After all the trouble we went through to get them?" Tsuna couldn't help sputtering.

"Who the hell would do something like that?" Gokudera demanded, and Tsuna got a sinking sensation in his stomach. He thinks he knew the answer to that question, and he wasn't sure he could figure out _why_. Yamamoto's simple answer of ' _Our Boss_ ' proved him right and he groaned, hiding his face in his hands. Why on earth would he _do_ that?

Yamamoto laughed, "Some of the Guardians objected to it too, but Tsuna refused to budge."

"But...why would I do something like that?" Tsuna asked. A voice in the back of his head told him something wasn't right about the situation, but he ignored it, the voice sounding muffled and easily drowned out.

Yamamoto looked over his shoulder a mildly curious look on his face and ( _not yours - you're mine - not real - realrealrealrealhe'sreal - helphimhelphimhelphelphelp_ ), "You don't know either, huh?" He turned back around his face softening and unseen by the two teens filled with a devastating _grief_ ( _so much blood - ohgod the_ screaming _\- he'sgonecomebackcomeback - you can't be gone - nonononononono-_ ), "When Tsuna mentioned the abolition of the Vongola Rings, it created a lot of outbursts among the Sicilian Mafia regarding the importance of the rings...especially when we were on the verge of another battle to contest it. But I guess instead of triggering another battle, you probably thought it was better if they didn't exist?"

He paused for a second, before his smile was back on his face and lifted a hand to show off the rings on his fingers, "Still, we're now relying on these rings big time. I'll teach you guys all about it! It'll be like special baseball training!" The words left the taste of bitter ash in his mouth, but he continued to smile, eyes closed and hiding the storm raging within.

Yamamoto was already pulling his sword off his back when the explosion went off and voices shouted, "THIS WAY! HURRY!" Tsuna tensed, squinting and letting out a gasp when he realized who the two figures emerging from the smoke were.

"Lambo and I-pin!" he cried out, eyes wide and ears ringing from the explosion. The next few moments were a blur of shouts and movements, before his eyes shot upwards and landed on two figures dressed in black and flying in the sky with the help of flames on their feet.

One of them was holding a giant scythe where the blade was made out of violent flames, and said, "Finish it up."

The other figure smirked and responded, "Leave it to me, bro."

 **XX**

" **What** was that?" Adele asked curiously, shielding her eyes with her hand and looking in the distance where there seemed to be an abundance of explosions happening. Then there was an explosion of _Sky Flames_ and Adele's slate blue eyes widened and her mouth popped open in shock. "Was that-?"

"Let's go," a red haired woman ordered, face a mask of cold indifference. The curly haired brunette next to her peered vaguely in the direction the sudden presence of Sky Flames, face blank. "Jessica, we'll most likely need your flames."

"Kaaay, Tania," the brunette hummed, lips curled in a half smile that didn't really reach her eyes in any way.

"Tania, was that really-" Adele started, but cut herself off at the redhead's deadly glare aimed at her, even as they began to move more swiftly in the direction of the explosions, as Storm Flames ignited violently as well. "Oohhh man, that's not good." The golden blonde's face was vaguely worried, but her lips were stretched in a wide grin that showed teeth.

There was a final explosion of flames and Tania had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from igniting her flames in return ( _to embrace - to comfort - to soothe - you'rebackbackback-)_. The other Sky Flames wouldn't recognize her and the very thought had her own flames flinching violently and burrowing deep inside her with a wounded churr.

The trio entered the scene of the obvious battle, and Adele made a confused sound when she laid eyes on an obviously much younger than normal Hayato, Takeshi, Lambo, I-pin, and Haru. However, the noise caught Hayato's attention and his head whipped around, staring at the three women and demanded, "Who the fuck is you?"

Tania gave him a slow look, before turning to Jessica in a clearly dismissive manner and ordering, "Start working on them. I will go fetch Tsunayoshi and Kyoko. Adele, _keep them calm_." Without a backwards glance, the redhead left the group, heading for the warehouse where she could sense the small spark of Tsuna's flames, and Kyoko's own miniscule ones.

Gokudera puffed up in indignation, looking prepared to yell at the strange woman suddenly taking control of the situation, when the blonde woman of the trio was suddenly in front of him and holding his face with her hands. She squished his cheeks together, her eyes piercing into his, even as her lips were stretched into a wide grin. Warmth spread from her hands to his face and then expanded through his entire body until he practically fell to the ground, limp.

She followed his fall easily, keeping her hands on his face and smile softening into something much kinder and comforting. Gokudera stared at her somewhat hazily feeling strangely relaxed and calm and like he could just fall asleep right there with no worries. The feeling stayed with him even as the blonde flitted over to the children and Haru, touching their cheeks gently instead of manhandling them like she had him. He couldn't even summon any kind of irritation at the fact.

Meanwhile, Tania easily made her way through the rubble of the warehouse, keeping a sharp eye out for either Tsuna or Kyoko. It was Kyoko she found first, only because the terrified girl was calling out for help. Tania rounded around another pile of debris and zeroed in on the prone form of Tsuna with Kyoko hovering over him worriedly and pressing her hands against a heavily bleeding wound on the brunette's shoulder.

Tania casually stepped on some of the gravel more heavily than she normally would and Kyoko turned to her with teary eyes. "Can you help him?" the younger girl asked, voice thick with tears and worry. Tania bit back a sigh and knelt down next to the girl, a calming smile on her face.

"I can," the redhead answered, gently removing the shaking teenager's hands from the bloody wound and replacing it with her own. Her hands were still for a moment before the ring on her left pinky finger flared a sudden bright and sparkling yellow flame. It was a pale yellow and flickered weakly, but Tania wasn't overly concerned with it. Sun Flames were not her forte, but she could use them to help a wound long enough for Jessica, or a more experienced Sun Active User could get to her.

Kyoko stayed oddly silent, watching with wide eyes at what the older woman was doing, but her hands were shaking and she kept glancing at her blood stained fingers with a pale face. Underneath Tania's hands, Tsuna stirred, blinking open groggy eyes and staring up at the red haired stranger. "Who...?" he mumbled deliriously.

Tania looked down at him and her icy eyes thawed a little and her voice was gentle as she murmured, "Shhh, Tsunayoshi. Rest. Everything's taken care of." Bleary brown eyes looked up at her and flashed orange for the barest second, before they closed and the boy mumbled something along the lines of alright.

Finally, the flickering flames stemmed the bleeding enough so that Tania could move the boy, and she carefully picked him up in her arms, slowly standing as she did so. Kyoko stayed seated on the floor, staring at her bloody hands with wide eyes and a pale face. "Kyoko," Tania called, voice a strange mix of stern and soothing. When the teen didn't respond, her voice firmed, " _Kyoko, look at me_."

The girl startled and looked up at the older woman with a frightened expression. Tania's cold exterior softened and she soothed, "It's gonna be okay, Kyoko. Come with me and we'll get you all somewhere safe."

"R-really?" Kyoko stammered, clumsily climbing to her feet and would have fallen back down due to her unsteady and shaky legs if not for the redhead catching her arm with one hand (somehow managing to continue to hold Tsuna with her other arm).

"Really," Tania agreed softly, leading the girl carefully from the warehouse. They joined the others outside, where Jessica was finishing up her check up on the teenagers and kids and Adele was poking a dazed looking Gokudera. Tania sighed. "A _dele_. Seriously?" the redhead queried, a deadpan expression on her face.

"W _hat_?" the blonde snapped, pouting at the other woman.

Tania shook her head with a vague exasperated look and instead turned to Jessica, "Jessica, I need you double check Tsuna's wound to make sure we can take him back to base with us safely. I did what I could, but." The curly haired brunette hurried over, hands already glowing a bright, sparkling yellow that was a glorious golden color.

Apparently, Tsuna's name was enough to cut through the fog of Adele's accidental overdose of Tranquility on Gokudera as he jolted to his feet a furious glower on his face. "Where do you get-" the silver haired teenager nearly swallowed his tongue when the sharp eyes of the redhead focused on him directly, and the coldly blank face turned on him fully. A shiver crawled down his spine and he realized with a cold sinking feeling in his gut that this woman was _not_ to be trifled with.

She was woman who had grown up in the Mafia and had much more blood stained on her hands then he did (he still hugged the toilet bowl some nights, but now there wasn't anyone there to soothe away the pain). Then the blonde woman (Adele, his mind blurted) was in front of him again and holding his face so he was forced to focus on her. She kissed her teeth, slate blue eyes glittering and hummed, "Will you _ever_ learn _not_ to antagonize her?" Gokudera's face switched back into highly offended, and the blonde let out an airy laugh that somehow smoothed the ruffled feathers.

"Who _are_ you people?" Gokudera sputtered, tips of his ear turning red as he struggled under the sudden wash of soothing calm. Nonetheless he couldn't tear his eyes away from her's.

"Adele, _focus_ ," Tania snipped sharply, not looking up from where she was eyeing the broken bodies of Nozaru and Tazaru, face never changing from its blank slate. She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do with the two. On one hand her flames were furious at the threat to Tsuna ( _her light - her life- her lo-_ ) and wanted to _destroy-burn-burnburnburnbur-_ but she didn't _like_ killing. She could, she would, and she _has_ , but the two were just... They had been a part of the _Giglio Nero Famiglia_ before they had been taken over by _Millefiore_ , so she'd rather _not_ have to kill them.

Adele pouted, but removed her hands from his face and called back, " _Caru miu_ , you wound me. When am I _not_ focused?" The redhead didn't bother to deign that with a response, and Adele meandered over to the still shell shocked Kyoko, a calming smile on her face. Gokudera felt himself slump to the ground, the strange, weightless calm overwhelming him again, but somehow weaker this time. His panic and anger ( _fear_ ) getting soothed away by the kind of inner calm. However, he would be foolish to not believe it was merely the eye of a raging storm.

He could only watch as the curly haired brunette (Jessica, his mind murmured) hovered over his boss (and _god_ there was _so much blood - bloodbloodblood - it was staining his hands and clothes and ohgod he had just_ killed _someone - ohgodohgodoh-_ ). Her hands were burning a bright, vivid yellow, but her brow was furrowed in worry, even as the wound was slowly knitting itself back together under her touch. "Tania," Jessica called, catching the redhead's attention immediately.

"What is it?" she demanded.

Jessica pursed her lips, glancing at the group of young ones, who were all in a state of calm thanks to Adele, but it wouldn't hold forever (well, it could, but it wouldn't be a good thing - emotional development would cease to happen). "I'd rather not say until we get him somewhere more stable. I'll need your help though, Tania," the Sun User said tersely.

Tania frowned, an unreadable look in her eyes as she said, "Let's get moving then. We shouldn't stay out in the open any longer. Adele, get them moving, we're heading to the base." Gokudera stood, helping Adele usher the rest of the group up onto their feet, the blonde keeping an arm wrapped around Kyoko's shoulders, whose face was still a little pale.

The group made quick time in getting to the base, and Tania ushered Jessica and Gokudera into the infirmary, carrying the unconscious Tsuna in her arms. Marianna descended on the group like a whirlwind, face concerned and she ushered them all into the room they were currently using as a sitting room. "Adele! What happened?" the lighter blonde demanded, fussing over Yamamoto, who stared at her with a somewhat bemused smile, cheeks a bit pink, and then quickly shifting over to the still dazed Lambo and I-pin.

Adele smiled easily and answered, " _Caru miu_ , calm down. They simply got into a little skirmish. Jessica has already healed everyone's superficial wounds and has Tsuna stabilized. No one else was grievously harmed."

Marianna pursed her lips and ushered the group onto the couches and chairs around the room. She shot a look at Adele, who merely smiled, but her eyes flashed a fiery blue and slowly eased her forced Tranquility off the kids. "W-who are you?" Kyoko finally asked, steadfastly not looking at her still bloody hands.

Marianna smiled softly and soothed gently, "I'm Marianna, and she is Adele. Things will be explained in a moment. Why don't you come with me and we can get you washed up and you can help me make some tea and coffee." Kyoko nodded still a little shaky and took the pale hand offered to her easily. The two left the room, Marianna's voice a low soothe as she led the auburn haired teen to the kitchen, and Adele turned her gaze to Reborn, who was eying her warily.

"Oh my, Jessica's going to _freak_ ," Adele said cheerily, flouncing over and flopping on the chair next to him. Reborn had to refrain slightly from flinching, as she had seated herself on the very edges of his periphery vision. He turned his head the slightest bit to stare at her silently, to which she merely grinned widely at him, seeming as if to be perfectly at ease. Reborn couldn't quite shake the ominous feeling that crowded close over him at the look on the woman's face.

Marianna entered the living room again holding a tray of coffee and cups, while Kyoko trailed behind her with a tray of tea and cups looking much calmer and hands cleaned. The two set the trays on the table, and Marianna set about pouring everyone drinks, calm smile never leaving her face. "Adele, have you spoken to Tania yet?" the freckled woman asked, voice light.

Reborn filed the name away, wondering which woman it was that was currently with his student, and Adele replied easily, "Nah, she's with Tsuna. Jessica said there was a _slight_ issue she needed Tania's help with. I think she was going to come back here for a moment to explain, so shouldn't be too much longer now." Reborn sat up straighter and he was about to demand answers when the door swung open once more to admit a stone cold faced woman with short red hair and an overwhelming aura.

She seemed to _fill_ the room with her very presence that screamed _danger_ , but at the same time provide comfort, safety, _protection_. Reborn felt he should know that type of presence but for some reason he couldn't quite place his finger on _what_ or _why_. She stalked across the room until she was next to Marianna, who had stood to greet her with the typical Italian cheek kiss and a warm, " _Ciau_ , Tania."

Tania repeated the gesture, cold features easing slightly into something more warm. " _Ciau_ , Marianna," her voice was smooth, but the distinction of the Sicilian Italian, though not quite the one Reborn was used to, rolled off her tongue with dulcet smoothness. He knew her accent, but couldn't quite place which dialect it was directly, and that bothered him.

"How is he?" Marianna asked as she pulled back.

Tania looked at her, face clamming back up tightly, "He's physically fine, but I'm not staying in here for long. Jessica and Hayato are with him right now." Marianna hummed, nodding her head, as if that made sense (but what did Reborn know? He was stranded in a destroyed future with strangers and didn't really know anything at all, did he?).

"Who are you?" the hitman asked.

The redhead looked over at him and he found himself a bit disconcerted at how closed off her eyes were and his flames churned uncomfortably. "Tania," she started, cocking her head to the side slightly. "A friend." The two continued to stare at each other, and Reborn noted from his periphery that Adele was looking highly amused, and he could even see a faint glimmer of amusement from Marianna.

The stare down was interrupted by Yamamoto, who asked, "So what's going on exactly?"

Reborn turned away from the woman and started, "You must have been shocked by many things."

He was going to continued, when Tania interrupted with a sharp tone that would brook no argument, "Of which _Adele_ will explain to you. _Fully_." The baby hitman looked at her sharply, anger sparking deep in his belly and flames rising to the surface viciously. Her face never changed as she stared back at him, face utterly blank. Her expression was only vaguely challenging, and her next words were made to stab at him directly, " _She_ knows what is going on, and is more equipped to explain what _exactly_ is going on."

The _unlike you_ hung heavy in the air, and Reborn had to concede her point though it rankled him to have some _unknown_ telling him what was going to happen.

"Marianna, I will be heading back to Tsunayoshi, keep an eye on here," Tania ordered, and then tossed a look at Adele and said, " _Do_ behave yourself, Adele." The woman then turned on her heel and left the room, hiding the tightening of her expression from the group. She entered the infirmary, a grim expression on her face. "Jessica, what's wrong?"

The curly haired brunette frowned down at Tsuna, who was laying in one of the beds, wounds wrapped and currently running a fever. "Somethings not _right_ with his flames," she explained, brow furrowed and resting a flame covered hand on the teen's forehead.

"What do you mean not right?" Gokudera demanded. What was wrong with the Tenth? And then much to his complete shock, Tania's hand lit up a magnificent orange, darker than his boss's but unmistakably _Sky Flames_. The woman placed her hand on Tsuna's forehead and her flame flared brilliantly, lighting up the entire room and giving off the feeling of _warmth protection safety home iloveyouiloveyouiloveyouiloveyou-_

Abruptly the warm feelings were shattered by a sudden onslaught of _rage fury whodidthis i'll kill them screaming fury anger rage whodidthiswhodidthiswhodidthis i'll_ murder _them_ -

Gokudera gasped under the pressure eyes wide and wild, his own flames flickering up in response deep inside of him, but small and insignificant compared to the sheer strength and _power_ emanating from the suddenly _enraged_ woman. She snatched her hand away from the feverish forehead, eyes glowing a violent orange and lips twisted in an animalistic snarl. "Who would _dare_ -" the redhead cut herself off in a wordless growl of rage.

Jessica, seemingly unfazed by the woman's anger, asked, " _What_?"

Gokudera sucked in a desperate breath as the pressure vanished instantly and he looked at the red haired woman in awe and fear. "Someone put a _seal_ on his _flame_ as a _young child_ ," Tania growled, voice rough and face twisted in an ugly expression of righteous fury.

The half-Italian was startled when Jessica's face twisted into pure horror, the most expression she had shown since the trio had shown up. "They did _what_?" Jessica whispered hoarsely. "Don't they know what that _does_ to the development of a _child_? Not to mention Tsuna is a _Sky_ , and a powerful one at that too! What were they _thinking_?"

"Evidently they _weren't_ ," Tania snarled. Gokudera watched with wide eyes as the red haired woman flared her flames around her hand again, but instead of placing them on Tsuna's forehead, she slammed her hand on his chest. The flames flared so brightly and so intensely that Gokudera had to fight the urge to cover his eyes at the intensity. The flames kept growing bigger and brighter, and sweat began forming on Tania's face, her brow an intense furrow of concentration.

"Tania!" Jessica gasped, making an aborted movement towards the redhead, but was stopped by a warning smack from the flaring Sky Flames. Sweat was beginning to pour even more heavily down Tania's face and arms as she set her other hand on Tsuna's chest and her flames flared brighter and brighter, until after what seemed like _hours_ Tania let out a loud roar, her flames bursting around her and Tsuna in a brilliant show of light.

Jessica let out a grunt as she was pushed back onto the floor from the burst of flames, while Gokudera fell over with his chair with a loud clatter. The teenager's eyes were wide as he stared up at Tania with a fearfully awed expression. Slowly, the light began to dissipate and Tania panted as she carefully took her hands away from Tsuna's chest, just in time as said teen bolted up right with a shout and eyes wide open in panic.

There was a wordless cry from the brunette's mouth that melted into a pained yelp as he gripped his wounded shoulder tightly. Tania rolled her eyes and gently shoved the teen back down, not even glancing at the Vongola Ring hanging from his neck. "Careful, Tsunayoshi, you may have been healed, but it's still tender. Overwork it and it'll reopen," the redhead said calmly as if she hadn't just expended a large amount of Sky Flames just seconds ago.

Tsuna's eyes stared at her in shock and fear before searching around the room wildly, landing on Gokudera who was cautiously climbing to his feet, a relieved expression on his face. "Gokudera-kun! Wh-where are we? Who are they?"

Gokudera rushed over to his boss's bed, Tania easily moving out of the silver haired teen's way in what was clearly a very usual occurrence. "Our hideout! You lost consciousness right after you defeated the enemy," Gokudera answered, pausing and then looking at Tania for her lead in introductions, since technically they _hadn't_ been introduced.

The redhead's lips quirked the slightest bit, absently wiping sweat from her face with a towel Jessica had handed her, "You can call me Tania, this is Jessica. You'll meet Marianna and Adele later."

Tsuna looked at her in confusion, the fear ebbing away, before he turned back to Gokudera and demanded, "What about the others?"

The Storm Guardian smiled soothingly at his boss, placing a hand on the other teen's shoulder in a calming move, "It's _okay_. Everyone is alright!"

Despite the calming movements from his friend, Tania could easily see Tsuna was slipping into a panic and she sighed silently. "She-she-she came over! Kyoko-chan came over from the past!" Tsuna shouted, easily working himself up, and Tania shared an exasperated look with Jessica. Who looked like she was preparing herself for healing the teen again because he was stupid enough to reopen his wound.

Gokudera swallowed and started tentatively, "Well...about that. Sasagawa isn't the only one..."

The two adults simply listened as Gokudera explained to his boss what had happened exactly. It was only when Tsuna started shouting again, jolting himself forward to grip Gokudera's forearms, that Tania stepped in. "They'll all be killed!" Tsuna shouted, face pale and still obviously in pain as he kept wincing.

Tania slapped her palm against Tsuna's forehead pushing him back against the pillows propped up against the headboard. " _Calm down_ ," the redhead ordered, staring Tsuna in the eye as she did so, forcing him to look at her.

Before anything else could happen the door slammed open and Marianna and Adele rushed into the room flames writhing beneath the surface of their skin. Reborn was right behind them, gun out and an extremely dangerous look on his face. "What did you do to my student?" the baby hitman demanded, pointing the gun at Tania.

Adele and Marianna immediately tensed and turned on Reborn, usually calm faces looking distinctly murderous. Tania slowly turned her face to Reborn, a deadly look in her eyes. "What did _I_ do to your student?" she started, voice deceptively even, and the other women in the room fought back flinches. Tania stared down at Reborn, her earlier _fury_ coming back in _spades_ , as she continued, "What did _you_ do to Tsunayoshi?"

The redhead carefully stood from where she had been seated on the infirmary bed, her face like stone, but eyes glowing dangerously and with _rage_. "Did you know that _your_ _student_ had a _seal_ on his _flames_? (Reborn fought to keep his expression blank, but evidently he couldn't, for a cold and twisted smile formed on the woman's face as she continued) _Do you know what that does to a child? What it does to them both mentally and physically?_ _ **Do you?**_ "

"That seal was already broken," Reborn stated flatly, keeping his gun trained on the obviously dangerous woman _who was still next to his student_.

Tania's eyes widened in fury and her voice was dangerously close to shouting as she snarled, " _Evidently it wasn't_ , since I _just removed the rest of the damn thing_. Who was _dumb_ enough to place a _flame seal_ on a _young child_ with a _high level purity_ of _Sky Flames_?"

It wasn't Reborn who answered her question. "It was _Nonno_ ," Tsuna whispered, looking shaken and confused and _betrayed_. Reborn bit the inside of his cheek, not sure if he _wanted_ to believe the words coming out of this Tania's mouth, but not sensing any lie in her words to justify it.

"Was he _senile_?" Marianna hissed, looking pissed beyond words. "If the man wasn't already _dead_ , I'd go _murder him myself_."

Reborn slowly turned his gun back into Leon, face utterly blank. Gokudera was fluttering his hands around his boss worriedly, but didn't seem overly shocked by the information about the seal thing. "Is...is everything alright?" Kyoko's voice suddenly sounded from behind the group standing in the doorway. They all looked over at the teen, who was biting her bottom lip and peering at them all worriedly.

Marianna's previously murderous expression changed instantly back to her calming smile, "It will be, honey, so don't worry your pretty little head about it."

Haru looked at the pale blonde with wide eyes and squeaked, "But you all left us so suddenly! We got worried. Are you sure everything's alright?"

Yamamoto remained silent, looking around the room with a sharp gaze and noting that Gokudera was hovering over Tsuna with more protectiveness than was usual. He also noted that the red haired woman was in a faintly protective stance in front of Tsuna, but looked fatigued and ragged around the edges of her anger. "Marianna, take the girls and kids to the kitchen and start making some food," Tania started and Reborn opened his mouth to object, but the redhead steamrolled right over him with, "We just have some issues to work out and then everything will be alright, okay?"

Kyoko stared at the woman who had helped her and Tsuna, and was gratified when the woman met her eyes evenly and didn't look away in any kind of dismissive manner. She searched the woman's expression, and finding what she wanted, the teen smiled brightly and began ushering the kids and a protesting Haru out the door, "We won't be any help here, so let's make sure everyone has some food! We'll certainly need our strength, ne?"

The moment the door was shut, Tania turned her piercing gaze to Reborn and demanded lowly, "How was the seal _supposedly_ broken?"

Reborn briefly debated on _not_ answering, but there was a flare of protectively wrathful Sky Flames, and he decided it would be better to answer, rather than to fight. "With a Dying Will Bullet," the hitman answered blankly, not taking his eyes off the redhead.

Her eyes flashed and her flames flared dangerously, threatening to overspill and fill the entire room with her righteous fury. "I knew you Sicilian's were a bunch of _idiots_ but I didn't think you were _that_ stupid," Tania started lowly, her presence seeming to increase tenfold in a very lethal way. Reborn didn't dare look away from her, feeling very backed into a corner and not liking it one bit. "Tsunayoshi _could have died_."

The words hung heavy in the air with their weight, feeling very much like a noose tightening around his neck, and for the first time Reborn regretting taking the Nonno's word for it. He had been told there would be no possible crippling effects to being hit with a Dying Will Bullet to release the seal on Tsuna, and definitely not _death_. He wanted to believe she was lying, but she couldn't be. Her anger was to fierce, to _real_ , to be faked in any way and the way her Flames were flickering and actually tainting slightly with _Wrath Flames_ told more than any words could possibly say.

"Tah-ne-ah...san?"

And just like that the threat of her flames spilling over vanished and the rage permeating the air dispersed as if it had never been there. Tania turned to Tsuna, who had spoken and looked very concerned, and pronounced slowly, "Ta- _nyah_. The last half of my name is one sound, and the first half is short. Try again."

"Tah-nya?" Tsuna tried again, cheeks flushing as his tongue struggled to wrap around the foreign name, and the end result didn't sound quite right. However, the woman merely smiled calmly, previous anger gone without a trace, and repeated the pronunciation again, slowly. "Ta- _nya_ -uhm- _nyah_ \- Tania? Tania-san?"

Her lips curled into a small smile and she replied, "Yes?"

Tsuna swallowed, eyes flickering briefly over to Gokudera, who smiled encouragingly, and then Yamamoto, who was just smiling, but his eyes were sharp, before he asked quietly, "What's going to happen now that the seal is broken?" If the last words were tinged with betrayal, no one pointed it out, but there was a visibly softening of Tania's eyes.

"You're going to feel more balanced, for one," she started quietly, sitting back on the hospital bed and crossing one leg over the other. "And you'll feel more in touch with your Flames and Intuition, if you haven't already. It was probably already there, just muted and like you were listening under water. Your emotions won't be so out of whack now either, and your mental capabilities will increase."

Marianna furrowed her brow and asked, "If he had a seal on his Flames, then why wasn't he so dopey when we met him?" Tsuna looked vaguely affronted at the dopey comment, but also curious, wondering if he was going to get an answer on who exactly all these women were. Marianna obviously knew the newcomers, but she was also visibly more relaxed, and kept leaning (more than likely unconsciously) towards Tania, much like the older Yamamoto had to him.

"The seal was already in the process of breaking down completely, but since it had been there for so long it would have taken a few more years before breaking entirely," Tania answered, face twisting into an ugly expression as her eyes narrowed. "However, by then, while he would be more balanced, his mental and emotional facilities would've been compromised heavily."

"Compromised?" Gokudera sputtered, looking both outraged and scandalized at the perceived slight towards his Boss. Yamamoto lost his smile completely. He had no idea what this seal thing was, but from the sound of things it had been dangerous and had been damaging Tsuna.

Tania's face darkened even further and her Flames sparked again, but didn't seem to be threatening to overspill again. "Yes, _compromised_. Some emotions would be amplified, while others would be muted. His thoughts would also be more idyllic and naive no matter how much violence or bloodshed he'd seen. With those two things combined...?"

She trailed off, face closing off into a blank slate, while Marianna, Adele, and Jessica held looks of horrified realization. "How did we not realize before?" Marianna whispered, looking vaguely guilty and like she wanted to throw up.

"To us, that's just how Tsuna was," Jessica answered, gaze firmly turned away from Reborn, who was looking faintly murderous. He had known there were dangers to sealing off the Flame of a child, but he had never had to personally deal with the affects, so only had the bare bones of information on it. And maybe near the beginning of his training with Tsuna, he wouldn't have cared, but now? Now, he _cared_. And he would be having _words_ with Nonno when they returned.

Adele clapped her hands, the sudden noise jolting everyone and causing the blonde to be glared at, but she simply smiled, no trace of horror on her face. "Well now, we have other stuff to worry about now, so why don't we do that instead? Hayato?"

The half-Italian jerked, cheeks flushing as he glared over at the woman viciously, "What!?"

Utterly unfazed, Adele said cheerily, "Didn't you have something you wanted to share with the class?" The teen stared at the blonde woman blankly for all of three seconds before his mouth popped open into an 'o' and he hit his fist on his palm.

Then, he turned to Tsuna with a teeth baring grin and announced, "I've found the way to return to the past! The hint was lying in here all along." He brandished the letter that had been in his future self's suitcase, the wax seal broken, and pulled out the letter inside. Tsuna peered over at it curiously, and somehow wasn't surprised to see it written in his friend's secret code. Gokudera tucked some of his hair behind his ear and Adele made a choked noise in the back of his throat.

Thankfully, Gokudera had started speaking and the noise passed by without the teen's notice, "Gather the Guardians with the Vongola Rings; defeat Byakuran. Eliminate the guy with the glasses in the photograph. Everything will return to as it was. And that's all there is."

Tsuna frowned and pointed out, "Why does it mention the Vongola Rings, didn't I - or rather Future Me? - destroy the rings?"

"That's just it. This letter says nothing of going to the past to eliminate (Tsuna wasn't even going to _begin_ thinking about what _eliminate_ entailed) the guy with the glasses. Rather, it refers to defeating Byakuran in _this_ era," Gokudera responded, not noticing the confused looks the women in the room were giving the two teenagers.

"Do you understand?" Reborn asked, tilting his head to look at his student, having already shoved everything about the seal away into the back of his mind for later perusal, as well as the reactions of Tania. "This letter was addressed to those who hold the Rings in this era. In other words, _to you_. So, if we follow the message, gather the Guardians, and kill the man with the glasses, everything will return to as they were. We'll be able to return to the past."

Tsuna cocked his head to the side, frowning slightly as the voice in the back of his head ( _it had always been then - wherehaditgone - where's the warmth why'd it leave - everything is so_ cold _now -_ ) murmuring uneasily, but not giving anything concrete. "Return to the past?" he parroted.

Reborn nodded, eyeing his student with curiosity. There was already a change in the teen's responses to things, he was calmer, not freaking out violently as he had been prone to doing. He was also less emotionally callous to people. "The good thing is," Reborn began, shoving those thoughts away for later. "We now have an objective and that's this man with glasses. Lal Mirch has identified him, and he appears to be Irie Shouichi, one of Millefiore's Squad Captains."

"Wait a moment," Marianna interrupted face obviously confused. "Back up a bit. Tsuna? Destroy the _Vongola Rings_? What in heavens are you _talking_ about?"

Tsuna and Gokudera shared a confused look, and Tsuna tentatively said, "Older Yamamoto said I destroyed the Vongola Rings, rather than get in another battle over them? Was he wrong?"

Marianna turned to Tania, face disbelieving and flapping her hand at the two teens, "Just. W _hat_?" Yamamoto stayed silent, content to just observe. He was learning a lot and it seemed that they had mostly, not so much _forget_ , but simply skated? over the fact he was still in the room. It was proving most educational if he said so himself.

Like the fact that this Tania lady was kinda like a mix of Tsuna and Squalo's boss, and he was brave enough to admit she kinda terrified him. Okay, _really_ terrified him. But she also emitted the feeling of _safetywarmthprotection_ that Tsuna did sometimes.

Tania's brow was furrowed and her lips were turned down in a confused frown. "I have to agree. Tsunayoshi didn't destroy the Rings. They were en route to me for protection, when a third party destroyed them. We haven't had the actual time to investigate who that third party was with the War starting up, and the couriers were all murdered." She then looked over at Marianna, still with that confused look and questioned, "Why would Takeshi think _Tsunayoshi_ destroyed the Rings?"

The pale blonde shrugged with her own confused look, "I have no clue. The topic never really came up, and even when I did mention it, he never seemed confused about it."

"...Why would the Vongola send the Rings to _you_ for protection?" Reborn asked in a deceptively light voice. Tania's cold gaze swept over to him, face closing off faster than a blink of an eye, and Reborn suddenly felt like he was staring at a venomous snake poised to strike. The tension in the room spiked dangerously as the two continued to lock gazes, Reborn's expression darkening the longer the staring continued with no answer.

Yamamoto laughed suddenly, breaking the tension like glass, and said cheerily, "Well, either way we have the Rings now and I think it's a good thing we've come here, ne?" Tsuna looked at the other teen in confusion, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he _hadn't_ in fact destroyed the Rings. Yamamoto's lips twisted in a cool smile, eyes calm and serious as he finished, "We'll shape our own futures with our own hands."

 **XX**

" **Tania,** what's really going on?" Marianna asked quietly from her spot next to the redhead, curled slightly and leaning against the younger woman. Tania was reading some documents in one hand, her other arm slung on the back of the couch the two were seated on and fiddling with the blonde's hair. Jessica was sitting on the floor with her back pressed against Tania's legs, pursuing her own folder of documents, though her's were medical in nature, and Adele was draped on the other side of the couch, her feet burrowed under Marianna's thighs.

At the question, Tania looked up from her papers, and seemed to mull over her words for a moment before replying, "I can't say for sure yet. I'd need to get into contact with Kyouya first, before I could give you a definite answer. There's too much I need to piece together first."

Marianna grumbled at that, but didn't push further for an answer, trusting in her Sky. "So what are the munchkins up to?" Adele asked, looking over the edge of the book she was reading and wiggling her toes under Marianna's thighs.

"Hayato was saying something about learning the ways of the future," Jessica mumbled, not even looking up from her documents. She had avoided looking at Reborn for as long as she could, but she hadn't been able to completely. And it hurt. It tore open the wound that hadn't even been healed anyways. ( _there had been so much blood - don'tleavemeplease - shewasscreaming - sobbingcrying this couldn't be happening - don't leave me_ please _\- Sku-_ )

"He said what?" Adele demanded, easily breaking Jessica's downward thoughts, and dragging her attention away from the papers in her hands. The brunette looked up at the blue eyed woman in confusion, and Tania turned away from her own papers with a raised eyebrow.

Slowly, Jessica repeated, "He said something about learning the ways of the future."

Adele wrinkled her nose and then let out a gusty sigh, "That means Reborn probably conned Lal Mirch into training the munchkins in their flames."

Tania's face went blank and Marianna grumbled, "Well that's not gonna go well."

"Leave it be for now," Tania stated calmly, something touching the edge of her senses and she set her papers to the side. She nudged Jessica away and with a lingering touch to Marianna's hair, heaved herself up off the couch. "I'll be back later. Keep an eye on the others, and make sure they don't get into _too_ much trouble, please." The woman slipped on a pair of shoes and left the room after getting affirmative noises from the other three women.

"What was that about?" Adele asked curiously, not really expecting an answer.

Marianna hummed, eyeing the closed door thoughtfully, "Little Kyoko is up to something I think." Adele shot her a curious look complete with raised eyebrow, but the other blonde merely shrugged. She didn't know anything beyond that.

Tania easily slipped up next to the teenager and said calmly, "You really shouldn't be going out there alone, Kyoko." The girl jerked, but managed to swallow the scream that threatened to escape, looking over at the older woman nervously. She knew it was stupid and dangerous but _she had to know_. Tania side eyed her, and her eyes softened slightly. "I'm not going to stop you, but I will be coming with you. It's not safe for you to be alone."

Kyoko bit her lip. She knew it wasn't safe for her to be out there alone, but she couldn't drag Haru with her, and the boys would more than likely just try to stop her. Adele-san had been very clear and concise in her explanation for what was going on, including the fact that it was the _Mafia_ they were dealing with, so they had better be listening and _paying attention_. The woman's face had been dead serious and compared to her previously constant smile, it had made them really listen to what was being said.

"I know," she whispered. She remembered the blood on her hands. The suffocating pressure of the killer intent from that man, but also the warm flames of Tsuna-kun. Then there had been Tania-san, who had helped her, helped Tsuna-kun, who had kept her _steady_.

Tania looked down at her and hummed thoughtfully, even as they exited the base, the redhead easily having herded Kyoko towards the fourth exit, which she knew Gianni was working on. "Your brother's not home, you know," she pointed out flatly, placing a hand on Kyoko's back, right between the girl's shoulder blades.

Kyoko was silent for a bit, looking down at her feet as they walked. "I know," she whispered again. She had figured that out when she realized that Ryohei wasn't at the base, but Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun had been. Tania stayed silent, letting the teen stew in her thoughts for the walk, recognizing that was what she needed. It was when they reached town, that Tania realized something was wrong.

"Come here," the redhead murmured, guiding the girl into an alleyway and motioning for silence. Tania closed her eyes and then took a deep breath, coaxing her flames up. Slowly she spread her flames around her in a thin film like aura, increasing the amount steadily as she spread the flames out further and further. In one breath and the next she had her flames covering a five-mile radius and then back and nestled inside her.

Kyoko peered up at her silently, gaze questioning. Tania held her finger up to her lips in the signal for continued silence. The auburn haired teen nodded, turning her gaze to her surroundings instead. Tania started guiding the teen further back into the alley, and away from the men scattered throughout the entire neighborhood looking for Kyoko. Most of the residents had gone back home, after the first few men had shown up dressed in black suits and wearing dark sunglasses, smart enough to realize that they meant danger.

But her Flames had felt someone who could help with Kyoko, probably more than Ryohei could have despite being Kyoko's brother. The Lightning Flames had been subtle and irritated, not liking the sudden infestation on their turf, but smart and cunning enough to hide the presence of their flames. And Tania knew exactly who those Flames belonged to.

It took some creative shortcuts, but eventually Tania and Kyoko reached the Kurokawa Residence, with no men in suits within sight. "Tania-san?" Kyoko whispered, confusion evident in her voice. The redhead smiled calmly and walked through the gate leading up to the house, just as the front door open and a tall and slender woman appeared in the doorway.

"Tania-san? What are you doing here in Japan?" the woman asked, and Kyoko felt her mouth drop open when she realized just _who_ said woman was. Kurokawa Hana had grown up exceptionally well and had grown into her sharp features, appearing much more lethal than when they were in middle school. She had also chopped her hair off into a wavy bob and dressed like a no nonsense business woman.

Hana blinked and then turned her head down to look at Kyoko, a bewildered look over taking her expression, "Kyoko? What the hell? Why do you look so young?"

"Don't overthink it right now, Kurokawa," Tania advised. "Kyoko just needs her best friend at the moment. I'm gonna go talk to your mother, if that's alright?" Hana sighed but waved the redhead in, and then slung an arm around Kyoko's shoulders and took her up to her room. Tania made her way into the kitchen, where she could hear Kurokawa Miyako puttering in the kitchen.

Kurokawa Miyako was a woman with sharp features, much like her daughter, but she had the narrowed Hibari eyes, though they were green in color. Her hair was also cut in a messy bob like her daughter, but she was dressed in a tank top and jeans. "Oh, _Signora Laganà_ ," the older woman greeted with a very cat like grin as she turned from where she was making tea. "It has been awhile; when did you arrive in Japan?"

Tania leaned back against the counter, humming slightly, "Not too long ago. I've got a small favor to ask of you." The redhead accepted the cup of tea handed to her, relaxing slightly at the familiar smell. Kyouya drank the same tea, and often refused to drink any other tea and Tsunayoshi had gotten a taste for it as well. It was a familiar and calming as much as nostalgic scent and it helped soothe her slightly tattered edges.

Miyako continued to smile at the younger woman, though it softened around the edges. "A favor, huh? Lemme hear it first and then I'll decide if it's a favor or not, _Signora Laganà_ ," Miyako said cheerily, unfazed by the flat look sent her way.

"It's nothing big; I just need you to pick up a few things for me," Tania hummed, blowing gently on her tea before taking a sip. She closed her eyes at the taste, her stomach churning as her eyes burned. ( _Tania, join me - it's okay everything's going to be okay - don't cry please don't cry- I promise everything's going to be okay - I lo-_ ) ( _there was so much blood - ohgodnoplease - don'tleavemedon'tleaveme - where are you going? - so much blood - was that screaming? - who's screaming - don't leave me - I lo-_ )

"Tania."

The redhead jolted, eyes snapping open the visions of blood fading away abruptly and with it the slack face of - She sucked in a harsh breath, and Miyako watched her silently for a moment before asking, "Where are your Guardians?"

Tania blinked for a second, taking another deep breath to try and calm her beating heart. "Marianna, Adele, and Jessica are at the base. Donata and Carmen are home, and Stella is with Kyouya," she answered, only the barest waver to her voice before it evened out.

"Your sister?"

"She's in Italy too."

Miyako hummed, eyeing the young woman silently for a moment, before changing the subject, "What's this _favor_ you need?"

Tania looked blank for all of three seconds before she remembered. "Oh, I need you to pick up some undergarments for Kyoko and Haru, clothes as well, for them and Lambo and I-pin, too. Some snacks wouldn't be remiss either," the redhead answered, taking another sip of her tea. "I can't really be seen right now. It wouldn't be...advisable."

"Sweetheart, that's not a favor," Miyako said exasperatedly, her smile twitching back on her face. "I'd be more than happy to do it. I won't even ask questions until you're ready, hun." Tania gave her a relieved smile, cheeks tinging pink. She turned her head, however, when something touched the edge of her senses. Something that shouldn't technically be out in town. Her brow furrowed and she set her tea down on the counter, before making her way to the front door.

Miyako followed after her, grabbing her purse as she did so and slipping her shoes on. Tania reached the front gate, noting that there were two of the Black Spell men around the corner of the house, and raised an eyebrow when she saw Tsuna and Lal Mirch crouched against the wall. "You won't get very far, you know. It's not just those two around here," she said dryly, leaning against the top of the gate.

Miyako huffed out a laugh, stepping out the gate, and waving a hand at the two outside, her cat like grin back on her face, "Go ahead on inside. I'll get them out of the area soon. Tania, you can pay me back later and text me the measurements when you get the chance. My memory isn't as good as it used to be, you know."

"I call bullshit," Tania replied flatly. "You remember your family tree." Miyako merely grinned, before she sidled around the corner and the trio could hear her smooth talking her way out of getting questioned, while simultaneously getting them to leave the area. "Well, get in here and tell me what's happened," Tania ordered, ushering the two into the Kurokawa household, and thus out of any potential hostile eyes.

"We got a signal from Hibird," Tsuna answered, shoulders easing in the presence of Tania, and he could feel his flames practically purring beneath his skin. Ever since the woman had broken the remains of the seal, he had _felt_ the difference. ( _warmthsafety - it'sbackit'sbackit'sback_ ) His head was clearer than it had ever been, and he felt _balanced_ for the first time since he could remember. "Adele-san (he stumbled a little around the 'l' but he didn't butcher it too badly) went with Gokudera-kun and Yamamoto-kun to go check the source of the signal, while me and Lal Mirch decided to go to you."

Tania hummed thoughtfully, eyeing the teen with a careful gaze. Her flames were straining against her skin, wanting to touch and curl with Tsuna's, whose own flames were _purring_ under his own skin. Lal Mirch's own flames were shying away in the presence of two Skies, wary in the face of high purity flames with Harmonization Factors. "Hopefully, Hayato doesn't manage to piss Adele off," Tania murmured, leading Tsuna up the stairs, so he could see that Kyoko was alright with his own eyes.

The brunette shot her a wide eyed look at her statement, wondering if he should have asked Marianna to go instead. As if sensing his thoughts, Tania shot him a smirk and said, "Marianna would have been worse." She knocked before she entered the room, saying, "We'll leave Kyoko in Kurokawa and Miyako's more than capable hands, while we go get our wayward Guardians, okay?"

Tsuna blinked at her, stunned for a second, before he mumbled an affirmative.

 **XX**

" **I'm** here to beat that rotten temper of yours into shape," Yamamoto said sharply, not even looking back at the downed and pissed off form of Gokudera. Anger was simmering just beneath the teen's skin, and his face was set in a cold and calculating expression that showed his _natural hitman_ capabilities. "The more I think about it, the more angry I get."

Adele narrowed her eyes, content to sit and watch from her perch in a tree, hidden from site from Gamma, whose attention was focused strictly on the two teenagers. She wouldn't butt into this until both boys learned _something_ out of all this utter _bullshit_. If they didn't shape up after this, she was gonna sic Marianna on both of them and wash her hands of the entire thing.

The two had been non-stop arguing (more on Gokudera's part, but _it still counted_ ) since they had left the base, and it was wearing on Adele's last nerve. She had heard the horror stories from a lamenting Tsuna more than enough times to get a clear picture of the volatile nature of Gokudera and Yamamoto, but by the time they had all met, the two were much more mellow (at least Hayato was). This? It was like watching a round of Bridezillas or something and Adele was getting more points on Tsuna being a fucking _saint_.

"What'd you say!?" Hayato snarled, panting as he barely managed to lift himself up enough to glare at the other teen.

Gamma looked down in interest, a crafty smirk still plastered on his face, "Hmm? What's this?"

The two boys ignored him, and Yamamoto continued, "I heard that before you came to Japan and met Tsuna, you were a lone wolf who didn't trust anyone else." Yamamoto turned his cold gaze back at the Storm Guardian, face an icy mask, "For that reason, I can understand why you're so loyal to Tsuna, who was the first person who opened your heart, _but_ if you open your heart _only_ to Tsuna, all you're doing is putting pressure on him."

Gokudera bristled like an offended cat, shouting, "What the hell are you talking about!? _Fuck you_!"

Yamamoto continued as if he hadn't heard the outburst, tone still chillingly lethal, "In the first place, a right-hand man is supposed to be the leader of the Guardians, whom the boss can count on the most, isn't it? You're supposed to pull them together! Instead, you've turned away from them. What the hell is that about, huh?" His glare hardened and there was legit killing intent emanating from the dark haired teen as he growled, "Right now? You have _no right_ to call yourself his right-hand man."

Gokudera gritted his teeth, fingers curling into tight fists and he swallowed harshly. His flames churned restlessly beneath the surface, and he knew the baseball-idiot was right. Part of the reason was because Tsuna was the _first person_ to _ever_ show him true kindness, and call him a _friend_ , and he was possessive over that. He hadn't wanted to share the most precious thing to him, and so had lashed out at all those around him, seeing them as threats to Tsuna or trying to steal him away from _him_.

But even with all of that, he _had_ grown reluctantly fond of the others that inserted themselves in Tsuna's sphere. It was hard not to, when _Tsuna_ accepted them into his circle. He just hadn't wanted to admit it to himself, because admitting it to himself meant _accepting_ it, and he'd been burned too many times to just accept it.

Still...

Adele sighed silently, irritation finally washed away. It looked like the two would finally be less of a mix of oil and water and more of a storm with a torrent of rain. She watched the battle silently, hoping the two could defeat Gamma, but also knowing it was a foolish one. Gamma was one of the Generals, and the two teens had only _just_ started training, and it hadn't even been an in depth one from the sound of it.

...And they were still kids.

"Man, we did it!" Yamamoto grinned. "That was a little bit of a close call there."

Gokudera huffed, "Fool. I'm the right-hand man. I don't do close calls." Yamamoto snerked and then burst out laughing, making Gokudera puff up again like an offended cat. Adele ignored whatever else they were going to say, flaring her flames and dropping down in front of them, just as Yamamoto made an aborted move to get out of the way.

In a flash, Adele had the ring on her finger glowing a furious blue as she inserted it in a box with a single minded purpose. There was a bright flash as a cloud of blue flames exploded and there was a loud screeching noise as lightning flames slammed into the sudden barrier of rain flames surrounding the three. "That wasn't very nice," Adele chirped, eyes closed and lips stretched in a wide grin that showed too many teeth.

"Hooh?" Gamma drawled, running a hand through his hair has he sat up, no injury visible on his person. "Now, you've definitely gotten me curious about a few things." He slowly stood, brushing away the dirt and leaves that accumulated on his person, lips still twisted in a crafty smirk. "We can start with _who are you_?" His eyes glared straight at Adele, who was still smiling and had the flames still glowing brightly around her.

She wiggled her fingers at him, eyes opening into thin slits that made her expression suddenly much more lethal. "I'm no one, _tesoro_ ," Adele purred, pulsing her flames and spreading her arms out wide like she was giving a grand announcement. "Any other questions?"

Gamma narrowed his eyes, debating on whether or not to actually reply to that. He didn't know who this woman was but _she was dangerous_. She felt like no Rain he had ever met before and it had his hackles rising in defense to the unknown threat. Eventually he allowed, "Has the _Decimo_ of the Vongola come back from the dead?"

Adele's lips stretched even wider if possible, letting out a short bark of laughter, "Oh, that is a question you don't want answered, _tesoro_." Her eyes flashed and with a twitch of her fingers the flames surrounding her collapsed in on themselves with a suspiciously liquid like splash.

Gamma tensed, but kept his smirk glued to his face unwilling to show his unease. "Hoh? Really? Because the apparent youth of those two behind you had me truly surprised; but then again, it _is_ the Vongola Family. I wouldn't put it pass you to create that kind of information," he shifted his stance slightly as he spoke, prepared to either fight or run as he continued, "But, if it's about the _Decimo_ of the Vongola, and why he's still living? That's not so simple, is it?"

The blond's eyes and expression hardened as he finished, "The guy was gunned down. Many of his comrades witnessed it too."

Both teen's eyes widened in rage, but before either of them could truly react to the statement there was a sudden _rush_ of white noise and Adele's flames towered over the group, and even the _trees_. Adele's lips were twisted in a deadly cold smile, eyes utterly blank as she responded flatly, "Oh, I know. _I was there_." Then with a low roar the flames _converged_ onto Gamma, but Yamamoto and Gokudera weren't paying any attention to the man, eyes glued on Adele.

The woman was silhouetted in a pale blue light that had thin tendrils rolling around her like the waves of the ocean, and the ring around her finger shattered in a shower of sharp metal. There was an eerie sense of calm surrounding the clearing, seeming to cling to the very _air_ and the woman's expression was utterly blank of emotion, though her lips were still curled in a thin smile. "You wanna know the interesting thing about _Rain_ _Flames_?" the blonde asked casually, voice devoid of any kind of emotional inflection.

The blue flames that had converged on Gamma had him encased in a bubble of rolling blue and suspended in the air. The man was obviously struggling, but the teens could tell the fight was slowly leaving the previously composed man, his face twisted in an expression of pure panic. "They're component is _Tranquility_ ," Adele continued as if Gamma had actually asked what was so interesting about her flame type. "Normally, people scoff at this, because really _tranquility_? What use is that right? Especially in a battle."

She casually began stalking over to where her flames had encased the man, the ball growing smaller with each step. "But what happens if someone gets _too_ tranquil?" she practically purred leaning towards the bubble of her flames, eyes glowing with the power of her flames. Gamma was looking at her with a truly terrified expression, realizing just _why_ this woman had set off the danger alarms in his head so easily. A glint caught his eye and he was startled to see a ring hanging from what looked like Mammon Chain on her neck.

He stared at it, confused and momentarily forgetting the danger he was in. The ring was a thin band that had the edges twisted in a wave like pattern around a deep blue stone, firmly wrapping it in a twisting knot. Even under the thrall of a Mammon Chain, Gamma could _swear_ he could feel a pulse emanating from the ring. His attention was forcefully dragged away from the ring as the flames tightening suddenly around his throat and he felt his body go completely limp.

His own flames struggled to fight back, but they were sluggish and were moving through his veins like sludge. A hazy calm was beginning to creep on the edges on his mind, and he struggled to push it back as much as his mind was shying away from the touch.

"Adele."

The sudden voice was new and Gamma could only suck in a harsh breath as the pressure around his neck was suddenly gone and his body collapsed to the ground, utterly boneless. His vision was hazy as he stared at where another woman had suddenly appeared, hand gripping the blonde woman's wrist firmly. He choked, coughing harshly and stared down at his hand in confusion as blood covered his palm and he could feel something wet dripping down his chin. The familiar tang of metallic that signaled blood filled his mouth and he could only stare at his hand blankly.

"Oops," Adele said flatly, staring at the prone form of the Black Spell General blankly. If she held the man in her bubble any longer his body would have shut down completely and he would more than likely become completely comatose, if not dead. She looked away, turning instead to the woman holding her wrist, her own hand still curled in a clawed position. "Stella," she stated, blinking slowly.

The taller woman's face twisted into a furious glower, grip tightening to almost painful levels. "You fucking _idiot_ ," she snarled, eyes flaring purple brightly for all of one second before they were just a dark brown color.

"Stella." Gokudera and Yamamoto both jolted violently at the new voice, close to gaping when _Hibari Kyouya_ strolled past them and over to the new woman, one eyebrow raised. Stella wrinkled her nose, but let go of Adele's wrist, but not before smacking the blonde upside the head. "Where is Sawada Tsunayoshi?" Hibari queried, face utterly disinterested.

Adele blinked slowly again, her face slowly coming out of its emotionally blank state, and she answered, voice vaguely confused, "I think he's with...Tania?" Hibari sniffed, turning away and stalking over to where Gamma was still sitting, staring at his blood covered hand blankly. There was a flash of purple flames and the man hit Gamma over the head with a tonfa, knocking the blonde out cold.

Gokudera ignored the older Hibari, instead looking at Adele, flames churning beneath his skin and he frowned. "What's wrong with you?" he demanded.

Stella kissed her teeth sharply, face still set in a furious scowl. "She simply overdosed on her own tranquility," the short haired woman growled, her gaze simply skipping over their forms, Gokudera noted absently. He was curious about how Adele could have possibly overdosed on her own flames though. Stella snorted, obviously catching his curiosity somehow, "Flames can affect _you_ just as well as _other_ people, Hayato."

Her face went coldly blank, however, at her words, eyes darkening with some kind of emotion the teen couldn't quite recognize. Before Gokudera could even try to decipher the look, there was a sudden wash of Sky Flames that was gentle and searching and heralded the arrival of Tsuna as he skidded to a stop in the clearing. He would have face planted too, if it weren't for the sudden steadying hand of Tania, whose facial expression had Gokudera blanching in fear.

Her eyes were narrowed dangerously and glowing a deadly orange, her lips turned down sharply in a furious scowl. " _Adele_ ," she growled, the wash of Sky Flames snapping back inside of the woman sharply and making even Hibari flinch at the sudden loss.

The blonde rolled her head around to look at the redhead, eyes still a little glazed, "Oh. _Ciau_ , Tania. What are you doing here?"

Tania's jaw twitched, before she obviously forcibly calmed herself, taking her hand off of Tsuna's shoulder and gliding over to the blonde. She reached out and clapped the back of the other woman's neck pressing their foreheads together gently. There was a whisper of flames ( _warmthprotectionsaftey iloveyou_ ) and to the teen's astonishment, Adele's glazed eyes cleared and her lips twisted into a sheepish smile.

"Oops," she muttered, averting her gaze from the disapproving one of her Sky. "Sorry, _caru miu_." Stella scoffed, and Tania turned her head around to the purple haired woman with a narrowed eyed look and pursed lips. Stella's lips twisted in a smile showing too much teeth and looked more predatory than anything, but Tania just rolled her eyes and pulled away from Adele, her flames nestled within her once more.

Tsuna flitted over to Yamamoto and Gokudera, expression worried. "Are you two alright?" he fretted, hands flapping around them uselessly and without actually touching them. Gokudera could feel his cheeks burning, while Yamamoto merely laughed, though his eyes were flicking over to Adele, awe evident in his gaze.

"We're fine, Tsuna!" Yamamoto soothed cheerily. "Adele (his _l_ sounded much more like an _r_ than anything, and Gokudera kind of felt like bashing his head against the ground) stepped in and saved us! It was really cool! Do you think I could learn to do that?" Tsuna stared at the other teen with a dumbfounded look, not sure if he should take him seriously or not.

"You're bleeding, Hayato," Stella pointed out flatly as she brushed past the trio of teens, Hibari following behind her with a predatory gait. Tsuna squeaked, eyes breaking from Yamamoto's face to Gokudera instead, expression worried.

"We need to get back to base then," Lal Mirch stated calmly, eyeing Adele with a wary gaze. The woman had taken out one of the Generals of Millefiore and that was without any kind of ring with power like the Vongola Ring. And if that was the precursor to what the rest of the blonde's companions could do, she wondered just _what_ they had been doing until now. If they had this kind of power what was to say they could haven't _stopped Byakuran_? Maybe Colonnello wouldn't have-

Her thoughts were interrupted violently by Hibari scoffing. "We will be using our own entrance," the man said, obviously responding to someone else's comment while she had been lost in her thoughts. She frowned as the man made a motion with his hands and there was low rumbling sound before he walked _through_ one of the screen doors leading into the Namimori temple.

"There's an issue with us taking our leave from _here_ , however, Sa- _Tania_ -san," Kusakabe Tetsuya announced from behind the teen's, making all of them jerk in shock, as they hadn't even sensed the man come up from behind. Tania turned her attention to the older man, making an inquiring noise. He gestured to the rings on both Gokudera's and Yamamoto's fingers, "The Rain and Storm Vongola Rings would have shown up on the enemy's radar by now. We can't afford to let their signal disappear from this location." Tania hummed, her eyes flicking over to where Lal Mirch was standing an unreadable look on her face.

"I can take care of it," Lal Mirch announced neutrally. "I'll pick up Sasagawa on my way back."

 **XX**

TRICKSTERTHIEF: I'm posting the first chapter as a kinda trial base? I wanna see if people will actually read this monstrosity :x i've got two chapters written and I'm working on the third, but these chapters are looking to all be 15k at the least and isn't at all like how I had originally planned (also really slow going lmbo) so, if you like it and actually want to see where I'm going with this leave a review please? Or just leave a favorite!  
Also all of the Italian in here is based on a Sicilian dialect which is the closest I can find for the Calabrian dialect, so chances are it is hideously wrong, and if you know anything about the dialect please shoot me a polite note informing me and i'll fix those mistakes


	2. Chapter 2

**The Empire**

 _noun_. [ **em** -pah _yuh_ r]

 _1\. supreme power in governing; imperial power; sovereignty:_

 _2\. supreme control; absolute sway:_

 _3\. a powerful and important enterprise or holding of large scope that is controlled by a single person, family, or group of associates:_

 _ **Arc I: The Sentinels**_

 **XX**

 **Chapter Two: Who Are You?**

 **XX**

 **Hibari** Kyouya glowered around the room, his flames coiled tight in his core and itching to flare wildly, but to also connect with the _young_ version of his Sky. But the Sawada Tsunayoshi in the room was _different_ from the Sawada Tsunayoshi he remembered at this age. He felt more like he had in the latter half of High School than he did in Middle School, but at the same time _not_.

"Kyouya," Stella murmured from her place at his side, a warning note in her tone. It told him that _her_ Sky would explain later, _away_ from prying eyes and ears. He grunted irritably, but subsided from his train of thought, storing it away for later. His eyes flickered over to where Reborn was sitting, eyes narrowing slightly. The baby was looking at Stella and her crowd with a suspicious and dark gaze, and he could _feel_ the hitman's flames itching to flare and _smother_.

If the Sky Woman didn't deal with that soon, _he would_. He would not allow for the baby to drive a wedge between Sawada Tsunayoshi or any of the others between the Sky Woman and her crowd. They were packs that were aligned and made each other _stronger_ and he would not allow that to be broken in _any way_. "Kyouya," Stella murmured again, tone faintly exasperated. He twitched sending her an irritated glare, to which she stared back, wholly unimpressed.

It was in that moment that Bianchi burst into the room, expression frantic and searching. Her eyes landed on the form of Reborn and tears sprung up as she cried out, "Reborn!" Fuuta followed in her wake, a calm smile on his face with an exasperated looking Marianna next to him. Jessica had kept Gokudera in the infirmary, though his wounds weren't overly serious, just so he wouldn't have to see his sister, and had stayed behind with him.

Tsuna blinked cautiously at Bianchi who hadn't seemed to change at all except to get more passionate. Tania had a long suffering look on her face, while Adele was wrinkling her nose at the display, smile looking more condescending then carefree. Fuuta's face brightened up considerably upon catching sight of Tsuna ( _wheredidyougo - he wassostill - thiscouldn'tbehappening - itcan'tbetrue - the petals of the white flowers washed him out - ohgod_ ), saying cheerily, "Cool! I'm taller than Tsuna-nii, now!"

"Desist at once, _Scorpion_ ," Stella suddenly snarled, eyes flashing from behind her glasses, while an ominous aura was gathering dangerously around Hibari next to her.

Bianchi's teary face instantly vanished into a taunting sneer, arms tightening in her grip around Reborn, "Hoh? And what's a _kitten_ like you gonna do?" Lal Mirch looked at the redhead incredulously, wondering what the hell the woman was doing. Didn't she know the power these women _held_? Even Reborn was looking at Bianchi with a slight incredulous look.

Stella's nostrils flared, bristling like an angry cat and her fingers flexed like she was unsheathing a set of claws, but Hibari's aura swelled and _filled_ the room easily. He brandished a tonfa, expression darkly blank, and stated, "If you crowd any more people in here, I'll bite you to death."

Tsuna flinched back, not because of the threat, but because his flames had sparked and were trying to coil around the older Hibari. A hand on the middle of his back between his shoulder blades startled him, and he looked up reflexively, relaxing when he saw it was simply Tania. Her expression was deceptively mild, lips twisted in a half smile, "Kyouya (Tsuna balked at that), come with me." The heavy aura saturating the room slowly eased back, and Hibari's tonfa vanished from sight. Then Tania turned to Kusakabe, still with the deceptive mild look on her face, "Please explain and Stella (her eyes narrowed slightly) _behave_."

The redhead ran her hand up from its place on Tsuna's back to his neck, giving it a brief reassuring squeeze, before she jerked her head at Hibari and the two left the room. Tsuna noticed as the two were leaving that Tania's expression turned into a poisonous smile that Tsuna had only ever seen once in his life. It had been his mother's expression when she had found out that his father had given the kids alcohol and she wanted to know _how did he ever think that was a good idea in her house, hmm?_ A shiver crawled down the teen's spine and he realized he didn't envy Hibari-san one bit.

Tsuna was dragged from his thoughts on the terrifying expression of Tania's face, by Yamamoto flopping onto the couch next to him, throwing an arm casually on the back of the couch behind Tsuna. Tsuna relaxed into the other teen's side, turning his attention to Kusakabe, who was about to explain about Hibird and how it connected. Stella had draped herself across Marianna, who was seated on the couch next to Tsuna and Yamamoto, and was still glaring daggers over at Bianchi, who was still hugging a vaguely resigned looking Reborn.

Adele had lounged out on the couch Kusakabe was on, her calves draped over the man's lap casually. Gianni and Fuuta shared another couch in the room, and Lal Mirch had commandeered one of the chair's for herself. "Let me start with Hibird," Kusakabe started, leaning back against the couch, and absently rubbing one of the legs on his lap. "We set it to flight due to a request from Kurokawa Hana. She requested one for the purpose of a "rescue" for Sasagawa Kyoko.

"Being with Tania-san, of course, meant that Sasagawa-chan didn't actually need rescuing, but Kurokawa thought it prudent an SOS signal go out to you guys anyway. Kyou-san authorized it, and made his way to the shrine so Stella-san could meet up with Tania-san."

Reborn's eyes narrowed, darting a glance over at Marianna and Stella, and then back to Kusakabe and Adele. "So, what is your organization about?" he asked, curious despite his misgivings over the unknown women that seemed to be popping up from everywhere he turned and with allies no less.

Kusakabe smirked in wry amusement, "To put it simply, we're a secret underground Foundation formed from the Disciplinary Committee of Namimori Junior High." Tsuna face palmed, wondering how he could possibly think that the organization could be anything else.

"I heard about this from Tsuna-nii," Fuuta mused, brow furrowed a bit in thought. "Under the Foundation, Hibari-san had been traveling all over the world to research and investigate the boxes."

"The Boxes?" Tsuna asked, confusion evident. Those were the things that Lal Mirch had used, right? From what he understood they were the way everyone fought in the Future now basically. But they weren't massed produced, and every one box was different from the next, with none the same.

"Kyouya will know more about them, so you'd be better off asking him directly," Stella answered, apparently finally dismissing Bianchi as insignificant and was no longer glaring at the older woman. Marianna had begun running her fingers through the purple locks belonging to the Cloud User on her lap, a calculating gleam in her eyes, though her lips were curled in her calming smile.

Kusakabe nodded in agreement and added, "Kyou-san intends to stick around for a while, but that's all I have to report."

Fuuta took over here, not even letting Bianchi start off as that would bring Stella's attention back on the woman, and then they'd never get any explanations done. "We've been gathering information on the Millefiore stationed here in Japan," he started a mild smile on his face. He held up two fingers and continued, "The Millefiore have a total of seventeen squads, but among them, there are only six captains of Rank A and above. Furthermore, out of the six, two are currently in Japan."

"That must be Gamma and Irie Shouichi," Lal Mirch mused, leaning forward slightly and brow furrowed in thought.

Fuuta's mild smile was only slightly condescending to the statement of the rather obvious statement. "Hmm, correct," he allowed, voice light before continuing on. "This is definitely unusual. Something very crucial here has gotten their attention."

"That's still a mystery though," Bianchi tacked on idly, looking wholly unconcerned on a rather potentially dangerous subject. Fuuta let out a silent sigh, already feeling Stella's attention return with a vengeance on to the assassin. Surprisingly, the purple haired woman remained silent, however, simply giving Bianchi a narrowed eyed gaze. Fuuta eyed her for a moment, realizing that the Cloud knew something, but wasn't willing to say it.

"But, we also have good news!" Bianchi continued, ignoring the piercing gaze of Stella easily, and absently poking the squishy material of Reborn's special suit. "We've located the entrance to the enemy's hideout!"

Tsuna cocked his head to the side, his widened eyes the only indication to his shock. Yamamoto was the one who voiced everyone's surprised thoughts, though he had a wide grin spread across his face, "The enemy's hideout? Really?"

Fuuta's mild smile matched the Rain Guardian's wide grin easily as he hummed in agreement. "It was right under our noses and we missed it," the boy continued, shrugging his shoulders in a 'what can you do?' manner. "Like us, they're underneath Namimori, but it's the Namimori Station Underground Shopping Mall."

"The Station has an underground...?" Tsuna started, looking confused. He didn't remember there ever being an underground shopping mall.

Fuuta shook his head, cutting the question off, "The construction began ten years ago, and was only completed three years ago."

"Didn't Haru mention something about it?" Yamamoto laughed, tapping his fingers idly on the couch, and Tsuna's mouth popped open in an 'o' before he nodded, clearly remembering when she had mentioned the project. It had been shortly before they had all been forced into the future actually, the brunette mused, intuition sparking suddenly. Something wasn't right about this entire situation.

Tsuna glanced over at the other women lounging in the room and found Stella looking at him with a lazy gaze. She cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowing the slightest bit, and Tsuna quickly turned away. Stella gave off a very scary vibe, one that screamed predator, and he for one didn't want to poke a sleeping dragon, like Bianchi seemed to. "This information is of great significance," Lal Mirch was saying, as Tsuna returned his attention to the conversation. "With this, we can carry out an attack."

"Attack?" Tsuna blurted out incredulously, looking at the scarred woman like she was crazy. "Gokudera-kun's still injured, _and_ we're not nearly strong enough to go attacking the enemy's base right now!"

Before Lal Mirch could retaliate, Reborn interrupted, "Indeed. In our current condition, we have no chance of success. On the other hand, the enemy must also be trying their best to find this hideout and finish us off. In other words, it's a competition to see which side can recover first to launch an attack." The hitman turned to look his student in the eye, face serious as he finished, "And, the key to victory lies in how strong all of you can get within a short period of time."

"Which can start tomorrow," Marianna stated calmly. "Jessica will have Hayato's wounds healed by then, and while he'll still be a little sore and tender, as long as he takes it easy for the first couple of days, he'll be fine."

Stella let out a yawn, stretching lazily before she rolled off the couch gracefully, running a hand through her short hair idly, "That's my cue to leave." She waved a hand lazily before sauntering out of the room in the direction Tania and Hibari left in and in her wake, Kyoko and Haru entered, holding I-pin and Lambo respectively.

Fuuta's face split into a happy smile, "Kyoko-nee! Haru-nee! Lambo and I-pin, too!" The two kids perked up excitedly, Lambo turning away from where he had been peering over Haru's shoulder after Stella. The boy immediately made grabby hands at Fuuta, a pout on his face.

" _Ziana_ Stella didn't give me candy, Fuuta!" the boy whined, once settled in one of Fuuta's arms, and for once not paying attention to Reborn, who had shot him a piercing glare that signified he had done something to annoy the hitman. "She always gives me candy!"

Reborn wasn't sure he wanted to know the implications of one little sentence, because it didn't paint any pictures that were simply feasible. It was one thing with Yamamoto and Crepuscolo being together (married? dating? simply lovers?), that could be explained as meeting on a mission or some such story. But _Stella_? An obvious Cloud, staying around the Vongola enough that Lambo was always given candy when he saw her? (and the boy usually did return with candy whenever he had used the bazooka, but he had assumed it had been one of the girls or even his student)

Not to mention he called her _Ziana_ , which, while the specific dialect was still frustratingly illusive to him, was clearly the word _aunt_. (he was also sure that somehow if he thought about Lambo long enough he was sure to get the answer on what dialect the Italians around him were _using_ , but even the thought of it made him cringe away)

"I'm sure she'll give you _two_ candies when she sees you again, Lambo," Fuuta laughed, eyes sparkling mischievously as he did. Getting Lambo to call Stella _Ziana_ had been a _great_ idea. The Cloud always cringed whenever the kid used it within hearing distance for her, but didn't say anything about it, because if she did Lambo would get _obnoxious_ about it. And Stella _hated_ obnoxious people, kid or no. It was the reason she gave Lambo candy every time he saw her, because if she did he would leave her alone and he would be _quiet_. (Those had been the enforced conditions on Lambo receiving candy from her. He would only get candy from her if he was _quiet_ and didn't _bother her_.)

"Tania-san said to come tell you all that dinner was ready," Kyoko interjected with an indulgent smile, and as if on cue Tsuna and Yamamoto's stomachs growled in unison. Marianna let out an airy laugh, getting up off the couch with a languid stretch and hauling Adele up off of Kusakabe, who sent her a thankful smile. The teens stood as well, and the group all began making their way to the kitchen, worries set aside for the moment.

Tania was in the kitchen already, talking with Stella, who was looking rather grim. "...already? I didn't think they would...," the redhead trailed off as the group entered the kitchen, her face closing off faster than the blink of an eye, and Stella sent her a sharp eyed look. Tsuna bit the inside of his cheek, whether to stop himself from saying anything he might later regret he didn't know.

" _Caru miu_ , the boys are going to start training tomorrow," Adele said, promptly breaking the steadily rising tension in the room as she flopped down into a chair at the table, leaning back and balancing on two legs of the chair precariously.

Tania's face relaxed marginally, and she leaned against the wall she was next to, folding her arms under her chest, "Really? Has Jessica cleared Hayato?" The group began moving around to get a chair and some food that was steaming on the table, mostly keeping one ear on the conversation.

" _Sì_ ," Marianna answered, shifting a glass of freshly poured milk over to Yamamoto absently, which the teen accepted happily enough if a bit bemused going by his smile. "She said as long as he takes it easy the first couple of days he's good to go." Adele was making a plate of food for Hayato, and Reborn noted that it was all things the teen liked, and he wondered again who these women all were.

Tania looked like she wanted to say something to that, but refrained, shaking her head instead. Tsuna was pretty sure he knew what she was thinking. Gokudera was not likely to "take it easy" unless someone was keeping a close eye on him, and _forced_ him to take it easy. "Adele," the redhead started, rubbing the bridge of her nose slightly as if it would help rid her of her headache.

"Already on it, _zita_ ," the blonde responded airily, lips curled in what looked very much like predatory grin, but Tsuna definitely wasn't going ask _why_. Reborn, however, had no qualms on asking what the hell the two were talking about.

The hitman raised an eyebrow coolly and asked, "Already on what, exactly?" Tsuna immediately felt like crying when he caught the look on Stella's face. The woman did not look happy with his tutor questioning the other two women. In fact, she looked downright murderous.

Adele, however, simply took the question in stride, "Oh nothing much. I'll just be helping make sure Hayato takes it easy the first few days. Heaven's know he won't without someone paying attention." Stella scoffed under her breath, muttering something too quiet to hear, but made Tania's lips quirk slightly in humor. Tsuna was sure he didn't want to know.

Reborn looked like he wanted to interrogate the Rain more thoroughly, but Stella's murderous aura had him refraining. The only reason Tsuna knew Stella was pissed off, was because he was looking at her face, but he was slightly awed when he realized that she had only focused her aura directly at Reborn, leaving the rest of the room unaffected. The Cloud curled her lip and spat, "Damn, but I forgot how much of a suspicious bastard you were." She narrowed her eyes dangerously, a faint purple sheen appearing behind her glasses and she hissed lowly, "You better watch yourself, Ren- _Reborn_. You go too far and you'll wind up _dead_ again."

Abruptly, Stella turned on her heel and left the room, and Tsuna cautiously peeked over at his tutor's face. The hitman's face was seething for all of a second, before he did _something_ and a mask of fake calm settled on his face. If Tsuna hadn't seen the change, he never would've guessed that his tutor was angry. He fought back a shiver and returned to his dinner. He had the feeling that things were going to explode soon, and it wasn't going to be pretty.

 **XX**

 **For** the past thirteen days the boys had been training both together and individually. Adele had been with Gokudera for the first couple of days, making sure the teen was in fact taking it easy and wasn't about to reopen his wounds, but once those days were up she had vanished, and they had only seen her during mealtimes if that. Marianna had popped up randomly during the training, a calculating look in her eyes as she simply observed, occasionally offering tips. Otherwise, much like Adele, they didn't see her often unless at meals.

Tsuna had been working strictly on strengthening his Hyper Mode Flame, usually on one-on-one training that mostly consisted of him getting beat up, but he could feel the rising strength, so didn't complain that much. There had also been the fact that he had sensed Tania watching his sessions, though he hadn't seen her at all. In fact, Tania had been missing in action for a while, not even showing up at mealtimes, but Marianna and Adele had both reassured him that she was simply working on something. Stella had left the Base, according to Adele, and wouldn't be back for a while yet.

Yamamoto and Gokudera had been receiving training on strengthening their resolve, and also their Flames, working on endurance and purity (at least that was what Lal Mirch had said). Marianna had suggested the boys work on learning how to actually _fight_ together as a team, but Reborn and Lal Mirch hadn't taken the suggestion (which Tsuna felt was both stupid and _petty_ ). So, when they weren't doing individual training, Tsuna pulled his Rain and Storm Guardians with him and set about muddling their way through how to actually fight together as a team.

It was surprisingly difficult, and they weren't making much progress, which was frustrating all of them, even Yamamoto. Tsuna had realized that so far they never _had_ fought together. In all of the battles they had encountered, they had all basically been one-on-one matches. Just look at the Ring Battles! It was hard for them to figure how they were going to train to fight together since they didn't have a teacher and no idea where to even start. Yamamoto had suggested they ask Marianna since she had been the one to suggest it, but Tsuna had shot the idea down.

"We only ever see her at mealtimes now, and I just _know_ Reborn will do something if he finds out," Tsuna had said, looking frustrated and confused. "I don't know _why_ he's against this, but." He hadn't continued but his friends had understood and agreed it would probably be best they tried to figure things out for themselves.

But now that their individual training was done, Lal Mirch had announced they would be doing something new. So it was with an uncomfortable stomach that Tsuna made his way down to the Training Hall. He didn't know why, but he felt like something not necessarily _bad_ , but _something_ was going to happen. Yamamoto and Gokudera greeted him cheerfully enough when he entered the Hall, and Tsuna smiled, pushing the feeling away for later.

He nudged shoulders with Yamamoto, and curled his fingers around Gokudera's elbow briefly, greeting them happily, "Morning!" One thing the training together they had been doing had succeeded in at least was that the boys were more comfortable touching each other. Nothing big, usually just the brushing of hands, nudging shoulders, or even an arm around shoulders like Yamamoto was prone to doing, but from how they were before, it was a _huge_ improvement.

They didn't even notice they were doing it anymore, the gestures now just considered _normal_. The friction between Gokudera and Yamamoto once hot and burning had cooled considerably, and there was no real heat to Gokudera's words and insults anymore. Tsuna wasn't afraid to seek comfort or give comfort and didn't shy away from touches any more. Yamamoto was more comfortable expressing himself truthfully, though it was limited to just the two for the moment.

The three teens had grown closer and their bond was now significantly stronger, and not just limited to Tsuna only.

"All three are present then," Lal Mirch started, arms folded in front of her and eyes narrowed in a considering gaze. She had noticed the casual touches between the teen's but didn't take much note of it, having not known them for any real length of time to notice anything truly different. Reborn, however, _knew better_. "As I've mentioned, you'll be starting a new training course today. It's called the Individual Assault Training Program. Now that you all have a better grasp on your Flames, we can move onto actual _assault_."

"Like with the Ring Battles, you'll each get your own home tutor to train you," Reborn announced. He would have gone on to announce who would be training who when the door slid open and Tania, flanked by Marianna and Adele and Hibari behind her, entered the Hall.

Tsuna's earlier feeling returned with a vengeance and he tensed subtly. Yamamoto and Gokudera noticed immediately and shifted closer to their Sky, unsure what had set Tsuna off but prepared to protect him anyways. "Hibari," Reborn greeted flatly, correctly assuming it was the man who had informed the women what was going on and had brought them down.

The man eyed the hitman coolly, and returned evenly, "Baby."

"You may not like it, Reborn," Tania began, face coldly blank and drawing everyone's attention to her almost immediately. "But you don't know _how_ they all trained and got to where they were, or even that much about the fighting _in_ this era." Reborn bristled up in anger, his flames screaming to be released and _smother_ the usurper and show her her _place_. But the anger and suspicions had been building for a long while, and just _waiting_ to boil over completely.

He didn't _know_ these women. But they were here and familiar with the Vongola with _no explanation_ , and it didn't _make sense_. They didn't provide any answers, and this _woman_ , this _Sky_ , took over like it was her _right_ -

"And who are _you_ to know how they all trained? Actually, just _who are you_? What right do you have to _any of this_? You aren't _Vongola_ , so _who are you_?" Reborn asked, cutting his train of thought harshly before he got too lost in the burning of his flames.

Silence fell over the Hall, and Tsuna realized this was it.

Tania's eyes narrowed and then _burned_ an intense orange as her flames rose to the surface, coming off her in visible wisps of orange fire, and she seemed to draw herself up to her full height like she hadn't been standing straight already. " _Who am I?_ " she repeated slowly, voice dripping with venom and Tsuna noticed that a flame was even flickering to life on the woman's forehead, _without the aid of a Dying Will Bullet or Pills_.

"I am Tania _Laganà_ ," she started, and Tsuna caught the widening of both Lal Mirch's and even Gokudera's eyes at the name. "I am the head of the _Laganà 'Ndrina_ , and so the head of the _'Ndrangheta_. We are allied with the _Vongola Famiglia_ as by the request of the _Vongola Decimo_ , and _Arcobaleno_ you might be, but you have _no right_ to _demand_ _anything_ from _me_."

Reborn felt like he had been drenched in icy water. How desperate had his student been to ally with the 'Ndrangheta of all crime syndicates? The relationship of Yamamoto and Crepuscolo was one thing, but it would have been no cause for an _alliance_ of all things. The 'Ndrangheta was worldwide and the most powerful crime syndicate in _Italia_. Powerful _Vongola_ might be, but the 'Ndrangheta had been there longer and was bigger and had more fingers in pies then _Vongola_ did. Though it was a bloody mess of constant 'Ndrine wars and power shifts, it _still_ held the title of most powerful in _Italia_.

And she had just said she was the _head_ of the 'Ndrangheta. That meant that somehow in the future she had managed to get _all_ 'Ndrines to agree to stop their feuding and wars, and unite under _one_ 'Ndrina. Evidently _her's_. She had the most powerful crime syndicate in the palm of her hand and she agreed to an alliance with his _student_? What could she have _possibly_ gained from such an alliance? What was she _after_?

The hitman was pulled from his thoughts, by a scoff, and found Tania's flames had subsided, though her eyes were still glowing orange. "That is who I am, Reborn, and you would do well to remember so," the redhead said coolly, eyes still narrowed dangerously. "Accept the fact that we have more knowledge at this point in time than you. Make your plans, but understand that if I don't like it, _I will overrule you_."

Reborn slowly nodded his head in acquiescence. He would allow it for now. He needed to gain more intel on them now, which _should_ be a hell of a lot easier now that he actually _knew_ just _who_ they were. He had to find out what the exact terms of the so called _alliance_ were, and hopefully he could prevent his student from doing the same move again. Maybe he would be able to help avoid whatever situation had made his student so desperate he would agree to such an alliance.

"Who did you have in mind for training who?" Reborn allowed, eyes narrowed in silent warning. He may have backed down for now, but it was not _over_ by any means.

Tania met his gaze head on, eyes burning with her will and saying that she knew it wasn't over, but she wasn't about to make it easy for him. "Adele will be working with Hayato, while Marianna works with Takeshi," she announced, the orange glow of her eyes finally fading, and her posture relaxing into a more languid state.

Lal Mirch furrowed her brow and questioned, "If I'm not wrong, Crepuscolo is a Mist, and Ferraro is a Rain, are they not? Wouldn't it make more sense for Ferraro to train Yamamoto as they're both Rains, and have a Storm, like the Scorpion, train Gokudera?"

Tania quirked an eyebrow at the woman, but it was Adele, who snorted rudely. "All of you Sicilian Mafians are the same," the Rain scoffed, lips curled in a slight sneer. "Because _obviously_ only Rains can understand Rains, and so forth. It's a load of bullshit. Seriously, you people just _love_ to stereotype your Flame Users."

"Adele," Tania said blandly, before the blonde could get even more worked up and shift into an actual tirade. The Rain wrinkled her nose, but refrained from continuing, eyeing the offended Lal Mirch with a gimlet stare. "While she was rather crass about it, Adele is right," Tania continued dryly. "That kind of thinking can get you killed, but it's not the full reasoning for those pairings. Marianna has trained with and simply _taught_ Takeshi for most of his career. She knows his style, strengths, and weaknesses, better than most if not _all_ people. The same goes for Adele."

Reborn narrowed his eyes at the little nuggets of information the redhead had just dropped. Her words helped build a timeline with other little slips from her Guardians. "And who will be teaching Tsuna?" he asked lightly.

"I will for the start of the baby herbivore's training," Hibari cut in flatly. "The Sky Woman will take over, _if_ he _survives_." The Cloud User gave no one time to react before he lunged at the teenager, who flinched back, narrowly dodging the tonfa, and barely managing to leap back and away from the following strike. Reborn cocked his gun and fired a bullet at Tsuna, nailing him in the head. The flames that swelled forth were brighter and much more intense than any of the past dwellers had ever seen Tsuna produce before.

Hibari was unfazed, used to a much higher output and more _pure_ flames from both the Sky Woman and his _own_ Sky. "I'm going to pry open all of your abilities," Hibari announced coolly, flexing his flames and attacking anew.

Tsuna frowned, realizing for the first time that he felt somehow incomplete. His flames burned, but something told him this was only a small amount of the potential they carried. His distraction cost him, however, and before he could react, Hibari's flames _pulsed_ and multiplied at such a rapid rate he couldn't keep up with it. His eyes widened as the flames solidified and encased him completely in a neat little ball.

The ring on Hibari's finger shattered and he began explaining nonchalantly, "It's the globe of Needle's form. It's an airtight sphere molded with the Cloud Flames, making it completely impervious. It's impossible for him to break through the sphere with either his physical strength or his flames." He placed a hand on the sphere, subtly feeding it more flames, and continued, speaking directly to Tsuna, "It's airtight, so the oxygen within the sphere is limited. If you don't get out quickly, you will die."

Gokudera let out a loud keening noise, and Yamamoto placed his hand on the back of the other teen's neck immediately, face dangerously blank. "What is this supposed to accomplish?" the half Italian demanded, leaning into the hand on his neck automatically, shoulders relaxing slightly.

Hibari's eyes narrowed at the movement, recognizing it from his own fellow guardians and wondering what had caused the sudden intimacy that had taken _his_ Rain and Storm until _after_ high school to acquire. Filing it away for later investigation, he allowed a smirk to pull at his lips and responded, "The weak will be buried; that's a given. To begin with, even if I had a reason to kill Sawada Tsunayoshi, there is no reason why I should let him live."

Both of the teenager's eyes narrowed, but to Reborn's surprise neither of them reacted negatively to the man's words. "We should begin our own training then, Hayato," Adele purred with a smile that showed too many teeth. Gokudera eyed her warily, but shifted over to the golden blonde woman, touching Yamamoto's elbow lightly. The other teen removed his hand from the silver haired boy's neck somewhat reluctantly, eyeing the spiked sphere with an uneasy expression.

"Come, Takeshi," Marianna murmured, eyeing the teen with a calculative gaze. Yamamoto gave the sphere one last glance before he nodded and followed after the pale blonde determinedly.

Tania stared at the sphere silently, leaning back against the far wall and keeping her face blank. Her Tsunayoshi had passed the Vongola Trial, and that had been after the seal on his flames had been eroded away completely after about ten years of existence. His mind and emotions had been irrevocably changed, but still he had managed to pass the Trial. But now... She had broken the seal five-ish years early, and Tsunayoshi was already showing great leaps in his emotional and mental health.

Would it make passing the Trial easier or would he ultimately fail instead?

Unseen by the others in the room the ring hanging on a chain around the redhead's neck pulsed faintly, a flicker of orange flashing briefly. Tania looked down at her chest with a light frown, bringing her fingers up to touch the ring under her shirt. It calmed with a quiet murmur, and Tania turned her attention back to the sphere Tsunayoshi was in. Something had happened.

Tsuna panted quietly, eyes drooping and each breath was becoming even more painful. He had tried to up the purity of his flames, but to no avail and he wasn't sure what else to do. The Vongola Ring was a solid weight around his finger and there was a sudden flicker before with a brilliant burst of light memories slammed into Tsuna's mind.

- _kill him - please give me a chance! if i die my child and wife..! - screaming somuchblood ohmygod - flames painted the sky blood red and smoke billowed like some kind of omen of death - you have to protect these Ta - i love you - there was an ambush - eradicate them all - cold voices cold eyes - callous and arrogance - this isn't what i wanted - anything but this - plE_ ASEHELPME -

"...What?" Tsuna blurted, eyes burning with tears from the assault and the amount of feelings and images _poured_ into his mind. - _i think you are worthy of these rings, Gio_ - _iloveyoubutwecan'tdothis - imsorry -_

"The Vongola's past sins." Tsuna jerked at the sudden voice that echoed all around him and his fingers clenched into fists automatically. Figures in suits and orange flames covering their eyes like a masquerade mask, flickered into existence in front of him. They were lined up on either side with one figure at the head. "Murder. Revenge. Betrayal. An insatiable thirst for power," the voice of one continued, figure broad and intimidating in stature. "This is the bloodstained history of the Vongola Mafia."

 _-betrayal - howcouldyoudothistome? - you were my- you'retoosoft - you'veruINEDEVERYTHING -_

A different figure, this one closest to where Tsuna was still kneeling on the floor, picked up the train of words, "You, Holder of the Vongola Sky Ring. Do you really have the resolution-"

It was the figure standing at the head that finished the question, "-the resolution to inherit these past sins."

Tsuna stayed quiet, staring at the figures with wide eyes and a pale face. - _PLEASEHELPUS - so brutal - GIVE ME BACK MY SON - NO MY EYE WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY EYE - screams blood so much death - what has my dream become - why has this happened - please come back - ican't dothisonmyown -_

Tsuna's lips trembled. He never wanted to become a mafia boss. He never wanted any of this. Why was this happening to him? Why did he have to inherit the blood of Vongola?

Tears pricked his eyes and he struggled to hold them in, unwilling to show weakness in front of the shadowed figures around him. "Stop it," he muttered, as the screams and blood echoed around his mind, and he slowly gripped his head as best as he could while wearing his mittens. There was a burning in his chest that was building in intensity the more the screams and cries and _ohmygod - i_ trusted _you - how could you betray me_ us _like that - did we really mean so little to you? - you're just like your father - cold and unfeeling - you'll paint your path in the blood of innocents - i never wanted this to happen - imsOSORRY - PLEASEFORGIVEME ILOV-_

"STOP IT!" the scream tore from his throat without him even registering it. The tears had broken free and were streaming down his face, and he could feel his body trembling from the weight of information and the sheer amount of bundled and frayed _emotions_. This wasn't just the Mafia Vongola's Past, he realized distantly. It couldn't have been. It was showing the _birth_ of the _Vongola_ too.

Tania's fingers tightened around the ring around her neck, biting the inside of her lip to stop her from flaring her flames in response to Tsunayoshi's distress. Her knuckles turned white from the force, and Kusakabe murmured quietly, teeth clenched around the toothpick in his mouth, "The oxygen is nearly out. Both his mental and physical states are reaching critical levels..."

"This won't achieve anything!" Lal Mirch suddenly burst out, turning to Hibari with a furious glare. "He's just going to die in vain! Cease this training at once!"

Hibari eyed her coldly, and said, "It was you, wasn't it?" Lal Mirch jolted at the seemingly non sequitur, eyeing the man warily. "You instructed Sawada Tsunayoshi to fight with the ring on his finger." He shifted, folding his arms across his chest and continuing to eye the woman coldly, "That was the right thing to do, but whether or not he can become the Sawada Tsunayoshi that you hope for? He has to be tested under extreme situations."

The Cloud User turned his gaze back on the sphere and added as an afterthought, "There hasn't been one so young to face the trial in Vongola History, though."

Lal Mirch gaped at him. She couldn't believe this man was the Cloud Guardian of the Decimo. He seemed too callous and uncaring about the state of his Sky then any Cloud she had ever met or even heard about. Even the aloof Alaude of the First Generation had been documented to having showed care and even _worry_ over the Primo. Hibari, however, honestly looked and acted like he could care less what could happen to Sawada Tsunayoshi, even if it was the younger version of his Sky.

Had he even actually Harmonized with either Sawada?

The former Arcobaleno swallowed, and chanced a glance over at Reborn, but the hitman was completely silent, face utterly blank as he stared intensely at the sphere. What do you possibly hope to achieve doing something like this? she wondered, switching her gaze back to where the Laganà Boss was leaning against the wall. The woman was clutching something under her shirt, but her face was completely wiped of any possible emotion. Do you people intend to alter Sawada's personality completely? Lal Mirch wondered, unsure how she felt about that.

Tsuna squeezed his eyes shut, chest burning even hotter than before and he felt like he would honestly throw up. "Stop it," he repeated, gritting his teeth and clutching his head even harder. - _imsorry imsorry imsorry - please dont leave me - i promise no matter what i will always lo- you are worthy - the Rings are special Gio- how could you do this to me? - screaming somuchscreaming - the mansion was burning - wherewasshe? godno please not this - there was so much blood - im sorry, but she's dead, Dae-_

"Do not turn your eyes away. This is the destiny of the successor to the Vongola," a different figure said, voice deep and gravelly. "This is the purpose of the live you were given."

Tsuna clenched his jaw and spat, " _I refuse_." - _iloveyou - please protect the Rings, Ta- her laughter was the brightest thing he had ever heard - hair like fire in the sunlight - iloveyou butwecantdothis - im sorry - dont leave me please -_ "I could never be so cruel. Not like that."

"That is the price we must pay for the power we wish for," another figure responded, voice utterly flat with no inflection of tone whatsoever.

Yet another of the figures continued, voice soft and with a tenderness that was only half fake, "If it's great power you want, you must also have the resolution to inherit our great history."

\- _screaming blood fire death - this wasn't how it was supposed to be - please spare my life i have children - whaT DID YOU DO YOU KILLED MY MOTHER YOU BASTARDS - SPARE ME PLEASE I BEG OF YOU - blood stained hands and salty tears - the callousness of arrogance and believing you are_ GOD _\- I HATE YOU -_

" _I refuse_ ," Tsuna repeated, tears now just dried tracks on his cheeks, and he was breathing heavily, throat hoarse. He glared up at the figures, the burning in his chest growing to almost painful levels. "You've _ruined the purpose of the Rings_. I DON'T NEED THIS KIND OF POWER!" he shouted. His throat throbbed at the abuse, but he couldn't pay any attention to it. They had _bathed_ the Rings in _blood_ and _filth_. - _i love you - hair like fire in the sunlight - smile shining bright and laughter that made happiness bubble up inside him - he wanted this to last forever - protect the Rings Gio-_ _i love you i love you i love you -_

"If you want me to inherit such mistakes," Tsuna panted, tears pricking his eyes anew at the _bittersweet love_ that told a story that was probably lost to time. "Then I will _destroy_ the Vongola!" The burning in his chest burst and flames flared around him so intensely, he had to close his eyes, lest he be blinded completely. The warmth encased him in a bubble of fire, dimming to a low glow that danced around him cheerily enough.

The figure at the head stared in shock at the flames, recognizing the flames as something completely different than the other figures. Just as abruptly as they had appeared, the flames vanished, but not before a tendril reached out for the head figure and brushed against him lovingly. "...Ariana?" the figure whispered, unheard by anyone.

Tsuna stared in confusion, his vision blurring as his strength left him. Where had those flames come from? They hadn't been his own, so how...?

The teen slowly fell forward, but was startled when instead of hitting the ground, one of the shadowed figures caught him. He jerked, eyes snapping open and stared. "Nonno?" he blurted, not sure how he was feeling. Knowing the man had placed a seal on his flames - _wherewasthewarmth-_ and had caused him damage and almost _death_ because of it, but at the same time having warm memories of kind eyes and soft hands.

To distract himself from his conflicted feelings, he turned his attention to the other figures, eyes widening at the diversity of characters, before they landed on the figure standing at the head. The man was blonde haired and his eyes a warm golden color, but the air around him was what made Tsuna really stare. It was warm and welcoming, promising protection and safety, but had the underlying threat that any harm come to those under his blanket of protection would be met with _death_.

 _\- iloveyou - he wanted this to last forever - i must protect the Rings - they're all i have left of her -_

"Your resolution has been unequivocally accepted," the man announced.

 _E'la nostra ora incisa sull'anello._

Our hour was engraved on the ring.

Tsuna could only stare and listen as the man continued to talk in his lilting voice, that strangely reminded him of Tania-san, "To flourish or to perish, it's up to you now, Vongola Decimo." His gloved hand flared to life with orange flames, and the Vongola Crest appeared beneath Tsuna, making him startle and stare as the other figures disappeared into wells of Sky Flames. "...I have been waiting for you. Now, it's time for you to inherit the proof of the Vongola."

Tsuna stared as with a blinding flash of light the flames all converged in on him.

"What happened?" Lal Mirch shouted, jerking back and away from the spiked sphere as beams of light suddenly burst forth and a great cracking noise wrenched through the air. "What's going on?"

"Kyou-san, what is this?" Kusakabe exclaimed, holding an arm up to cover his face as a startlingly heavy pressure swelled in the air.

Hibari remained unmoved, but his eyes were glittering as he responded, "The Globe of Needles Form has been broken." His flames _purred_ beneath his skin, relishing in the explosion of Sky Flames that burst forth as the sphere shattered completely, the Cloud Flames making up its form being swallowed in the wake of the flames. This is what he _remembered_. It wasn't quite there yet, but _yes_ , Sawada Tsunayoshi would definitely grow into the Carnivore he knows, his _Sky_.

The smoke dispersed, but the bright orange flames did not, spreading and filling the hall and in the middle of it all was Tsuna, flames glowing on his forehead, and hands encased in a new pair of gloves. Tania let her own flames leak out in response, relishing in the purity and strength of the teen's flames. It wasn't quite at the level of the Tsunayoshi she knew, but it was no doubt that he would reach that level soon, if not _surpass_ it. The ring around her neck pulsed faintly once again, and Tania curled her flames within herself once more, quieting the pulse before anyone could notice it.

"He's passed," Reborn announced, and Lal Mirch couldn't quite hide her amazement.

"I didn't expect this configuration to result from the trial...," she murmured, struggling to keep her own tattered flames from flaring and reaching out for the Sky Flames permeating the room. There was no doubt that Sawada's Sky Allure was almost ridiculously strong, and it was a miracle the kid hadn't harmonized with every Flame he had met, Latent or Active.

Reborn hummed quietly and responded lowly, "I was only half-confident myself. Though in all honesty, I couldn't think of any way to let Tsuna power-up rapidly, other than the traditional trial." Lal Mirch, raised an eyebrow but didn't comment, and if it hadn't been for the fact that she was standing next to the hitman, she would've missed his muttered, "...Tsuna. Very impressive."

"Wao," Hibari murmured, a smirk crawling across his face. He pulled a box from his pocket, and continued, Tsuna's attention having turned on the man almost instantly, "You're finally starting to resemble the you I know." His flames purred in anticipation, threatening to come off him in waves and run wild completely. The teen still had some way to go before he reached the level of his older self, but _this_ him was _brimming_ with potential.

The Cloud User glanced over to Tania, who was still at her place against the wall, face carefully blank. "Are you taking over, Sky Woman?" Hibari asked, flames flickering from the ring on his finger in hope for getting a battle instead of being asked to _walk away_.

Tania eyed him calmly for a second, before she merely inclined her head, "Go ahead. I'll cut in when I feel like it." Reborn shot a glance over at the redhead, wondering what she was up to. He still didn't trust her, even if she was an ally of the Vongola Famiglia, and it irritated him not to know what the hell she was planning. Especially since it concerned _his_ student.

An unholy expression lit Hibari's face and with a flare of flames, the box opened and tonfas coated in purple flames appeared in the man's hands. "Then let's begin," he announced, voice practically giddy with the chance for a fight, even if it ended up one sided. With his words he unleashed most of his killing intent, the bloodlust filling the room and making Tsuna and Lal Mirch flinch back.

"There are no rules in this fight," Hibari ordered, and Tsuna merely nodded, falling into a ready stance. Tania turned her attention away from the battle, instead turning to where Fuuta and Lambo had snuck in to watch their boss. She sighed through her nose and walked over to the kids, raising an eyebrow at Fuuta, who gave her a sheepish smile in return.

Lambo perked up at seeing her, however, a wide smile threatening to split his face as he greeted happily, " _Soru_ Tani!"

Tania's face softened and she crouched down so she was eye level with the five-year-old, a soft smile curling her lips, "Hello, _il meu carusu tauru_." Reborn watched them from the corner of his eye, frowning. The brat had called the Sky _sister_ , and he knew for a fact that Lambo thought of Tsuna as his older brother, though he would never say it out loud. There was also the fact that he clearly remembered the brat calling Stella _aunt_. This _alliance_ wasn't looking much like an _alliance_ to him, but he couldn't figure what else it could possibly be.

"Lambo, do you have your Ring?" Tania asked gently, easily picking the child up when he made grabby hands at her. He blinked up at her, hand inching up to his nose to pick it, but the redhead easily moved his hand away before he could.

"Lambo-sama doesn't know what you're talking about," the child announced, giving her a narrowed eyed look that was probably meant to be suspicious. Reborn felt his eyebrow twitch at the grating voice, but Tania merely huffed out a little laugh.

"Your present from Tsuna-nii?" the redhead asked again, using different words to get the child to actually understand what she was asking. Lambo looked confused for a second, before understanding brightened his face and he began to nod furiously.

He shoved a sticky hand in his hair and rummaged a bit, before he pulled out the Vongola Lightning Ring triumphantly. He beamed up at the redhead, showing the ring off in the palm of his hand, "Lambo-sama has been protecting it like Tsuna-nii and _soru_ Tani asked Lambo-sama too!" He puffed his chest out proudly, and Reborn narrowed his eyes. When on earth had the brat been told that?

Tania pressed a kiss to the boy's cheek affectionately and praised, " _Questo è_ _il meu carusu tauru_! We knew you could do it." The five-year old's cheeks flushed at the praise, his smile turning bashful. Tania hefted him up a bit further in her arms, adjusting her weight. "But can you do something else for me, _bamminu_?"

Lambo peered up at her curiously, for once not just yelling that 'The Great Lambo-sama Can Do Anything!' or something along those lines, but simply waiting quietly for the woman to continue. Despite what most of the teenagers (and Reborn) thought, Lambo knew when there was a time and place. He had known before everyone that something wasn't right in the future. But unlike the others, he also knew that _soru_ Tani and _zita_ Stella, and all the other women would do something about it.

He knew he was annoying and obnoxious, that he was still just a _kid_ , but in the future? In the future there was Tsuna-nii and _soru_ Tani, who _never_ treated him as _just_ a kid. They had entrusted the Ring to him, and it was his precious _gift_ and he would _protect_ it forever and ever until they said he didn't have to anymore.

There was a reason he had refused to give the Ring up during the Battles. He may have failed at the time, but he was determined to never fail again. The Ring was _Important_.

"You need to be even _more_ careful in protecting the Ring, okay? There's someone really bad who wants to take it away and get rid of it forever," the redhead continued, and Lambo had a horrified expression on his face at the thought of someone trying to get rid of his _precious gift_. "In order to protect it even _better_ , I've got something special planned, does that sound good?"

Lambo nodded vigorously, "Lambo-sama will protect the Ring forever and _ever_!"

Tania smiled indulgently, but knew it was the truth. Tsunayoshi may have wanted to keep Lambo out of the fighting as much as he could, but she knew it wasn't feasible. And she would be _damned_ if she left the boy without some way to protect himself _and_ the Ring. "Donata left some videos for you to watch," she explained, a fond smile on her face at the thought of her own Lightning Guardian. "She can't come here herself, but the videos will help you, sound good?"

Donata Calabrò was a woman of many talents, and harnessing the attributes of Lightning Flames was one of them. She had taught Lambo before, and the videos had been her own idea. She was often out of the country or elsewhere and so wasn't always available to teach Tsunayoshi's Lightning Guardian in person. So she had decided to create videos for the boy to watch and learn from himself, and then he could show her what he had learned whenever she got back.

Shamal had been generous enough to film for Donata, not even needing to be threatened to do so. Hayato had nearly laughed himself to death when he found out, only able to choke out _whipped_ at the time.

So, just like before, Lambo could learn from the videos rather than Donata in person, since she was needed in _Calabria_ more than Japan right now.

There was an explosion of Cloud Flames against Sky Flames and Tania called out, "Kyouya!"

The Cloud User twitched, but stopped any more attacks on the bruised and battered Tsuna. "I've changed my mind," he stated calmly, no hint of irritation visible. "The Sky Woman will take over, and when you're stronger, we'll fight again." Tania rolled her eyes silently, and made her way back over to the group, Lambo still on her hip since she knew he would refuse to leave if she tried to hand him back over to Fuuta. Said teenager was trailing along behind her, interested in knowing what was going to happen next.

"Now then, you herbivores," Hibari started, ignoring the fighting flames still in the air. "Do you know how the boxes came about?"

Tsuna blinked from his spot on the ground, blindsided somewhat by the non sequitur. He glanced over at Tania, and her lips quirked up the slightest bit. She shifted Lambo further up her hip, and pulled out a rather non-descript looking box, "These boxes originated from an idea to create weapons modeled after life forms found in nature, such as plants and animals, by a biologist called Geppetto Lorenzini. He made a set of 343-volume plans, but the designs in those plans were _over-technology_ , meaning it just simply wasn't possible to build them based on the technology of the time.

"Regarded as an empty theory, nobody wished to collaborate with him, not even the _secret society_ he was a part of. After his death, that same society simply placed his plans in a warehouse, where they remained hidden for centuries. At least until they were discovered by three inventors a part of that same secret society: Innocenti, Koenig, and Verde.

"The three found that the flames emitted from the Mafia Legacy Rings were the optimal source of power for the boxes. This cleared many of the technological problems they had been facing and they managed to build a prototype within five years. Besides the original 343 Boxes based on living things, they also researched and developed _new_ boxes, such as the storage box, or boxes containing tools or weapons.

"Unfortunately, until recently, they sold many of the boxes to the Mafia at very low prices, thinking only to fund their own research. Now, two out of three scientists are dead. Verde and Innocenti. Granted, I question Innocenti's death, if only because there was no hard evidence that the body found in his home was in fact _him_."

Lal Mirch raised an eyebrow at that and then wondered, "What about Koenig? It was said he slipped underground and continued to construct boxes and trades them as a weapons dealer."

Tania gave a rather bland smile, "Hmm. I wonder." The former Arcobaleno narrowed her eyes at the other woman, not for the first time wondering just what it was the woman was hiding.

"If you were to question for what reason the boxes were made," Hibari interjected flatly, catching Lal Mirch's attention. "Nobody can give a substantial answer. The true architect that has made the boxes to what they are now is neither Geppetto, nor any other remarkable scientists. It was simply coincidence."

Fuuta's mouth dropped open and he parroted, "Coincidence?" Tsuna blinked again, and wondered just where Hibari was going with this explanation. Knowing the history or whatever of the boxes was more or less in line with knowing more about the future, but the _reason_ why they were created? "So, they somehow or another _created_ it?" Fuuta continued, confusion evident.

"That's what it means," Kusakabe answered, and then continued with a more elaborate one, "Many of the big discoveries and inventions _of_ our world were due to coincidental happenings near the inventor, leading to a flash of insight. For example, the apple that led to Newton's discovery of Universal Gravitation, or Nobel's discovery of Dynamite due to a sample of loam he had that was soaked in nitroglycerin. Of course, none of these miracles happened just due to the coincidences, but the person himself must also have the aptitude and knowledge to understand it. _Still_ , such coincidences don't happen _that_ easily."

Hibari grunted lowly and continued, "But everything about the development of the boxes involved coincidences happening at a most _unusual_ frequency."

"What do you mean?" Lal Mirch questioned, frowning silently.

Kusakabe shrugged his shoulders and said blandly, "That's what we're investigating."

"The more we find out, the deeper the mystery," Hibari added quietly, almost as if to himself. He then shifted his stare to the still crouched form of Tsuna, "Remember this, Sawada Tsunayoshi, the Sky Flames can open Boxes of all the attributes, _but_ it can _not_ draw out _all_ the powers of the boxes of other attributes."

The two fighting hedgehogs in the air, took that moment to let out a piercing noise as if in agreement to the man's words. The one that Tsuna had released from the box screeched as it inverted in on itself and was crushed by its own spikes. The teen flinched back, and then turned wary eyes onto his Cloud Guardian ( _he'smineminemine-you don't get to touch him or I swear to God-_ ). The man narrowed his eyes faintly and added, "Listen to the Sky Woman, and fight me again, _Sky_."

Then without another word he turned on his heel and left, motioning for Kusakabe to follow behind. Tania crouched down in front of the tired form of Tsuna, who looked as if he were about to collapse, and said, "First lesson, Tsunayoshi."

He blinked at her blankly, the flames on his forehead flickering as they grew dimmer. Her lips turned down slightly and she flicked a finger at his forehead, directly on the flames. They sputtered and then flared to life, making Tsuna jerk slightly at the sudden surge of adrenaline. He panicked slightly, but was stopped by Tania gripping his chin and forcing him to look at her. Her face was a mask of calm, eyes burning with an inner fire.

Lambo had gone to Fuuta willingly enough when she had given him a stern look, but he was obviously pouting where he was cradled in the young adult's arms. Reborn was watching her with a narrowed gaze, wondering just what she was up too.

"Don't let your flames vanish so abruptly," the redhead ordered, fingers still gripping his chin and preventing him from looking anywhere but at _her_. "Letting them go from your system so harshly is more damaging then most realize. They are _a part of you_. You don't want all of that energy to leave you behind so abruptly, or you'll only feel exhausted and bruised."

Tsuna blinked at her, brow furrowing in confusion. "But then how-?" he started, but he trailed off when she smiled calmly and flared her own flames to life. The orange flames licked their way up her body slowly before it focused on her forehead and burst into life. It was only her hand on his chin that prevented him from gaping unattractively at the level of power and skill shown so easily.

"Relax," she intoned softly, and the teen found himself obeying without a second thought. His shoulders slumped and his breathing evened out slowly (he hadn't even realized he was breathing that fast), and his eyes were trained on Tania's. " _Feel_ your flames. Don't think, just _feel_."

Tsuna closed his eyes and _let go_.

Tania remained where she was, even as the teen's flames _expanded_ rather than contracted. The flames were gentle and spread through the room like a wash of water, and Fuuta basked in the feeling. Even Lal Mirch felt herself relaxing her tense body at the flames. Tsuna breathed in, and the flames receded back into him. He breathed out, and they expanded again, but remained closer to his body, rather than filling the entire room again.

The flames continued to expand and contract with the teen's breathing until finally they expanded only just about an inch away from his body. "Okay, now _take it in_ ," Tania said evenly and softly, keeping her voice gentle so as to not startle the teen from his state.

Rather than jerking at the sudden voice, Tsuna breathed in one more time and the flames on his forehead slowly shrunk down until it simply blinked out of sight. He opened his eyes carefully, exhaling and feeling a little like he was drunk if he were to be honest. His body felt like limp noodles, but he didn't feel like he was about to fall asleep instantly with a bone deep _exhaustion_. He peered at Tania in slight awe as her own flames blinked out of existence.

"Good, Tsunayoshi," the redhead smiled, letting her grip on his chin go. "We'll work on you getting faster at that, and tomorrow we'll see about you _igniting_ your flames without the pills or a bullet. For now, _sleep_." The teen almost immediately conked out. While he hadn't felt like he was about to fall over, he _had_ overexerted his flames and that had left him tired. The redhead caught him easily as he slumped over, snoring lightly.

She huffed out a little laugh, before she hauled him up onto her back, and then looked over at Reborn, inclining her head and indicating she wished for him to follow after her. "Fuuta, take Lambo to the video room and get him started on Donata's videos, kay?" Fuuta grinned and gave her a cheeky salute, before he left the training room in the opposite direction the woman and Arcobaleno were leaving in. "Lal Mirch, you can come with if you wish, or do whatever."

The scarred woman paused slightly, before she started after Tania and Reborn, rather than Fuuta and Lambo. Tania barely refrained from rolling her eyes; she had a feeling she knew what the woman wanted to ask from her, and she more than likely _wasn't_ going to like the answer.

 **XX**

" **So** , ask what you want, Lal Mirch," Tania started blandly, leaning back in her chair with an easy grace. The trio had moved to one of the side rooms after Tania had placed Tsuna in a bed, and now the redhead had opened the floor for an interrogation of herself.

Lal Mirch started slightly, but pursed her lips and then asked, "Ferraro took down a Black Spell General easily. If all of _you_ can do that, why haven't you done anything to stop the War?"

Reborn narrowed his eyes, and realized that was a good question. Of everything he's seen so far, the women all had the power to easily stop battles, so why hadn't they? He turned his direct attention to the Laganà Head, and found her to be looking rather pensive.

"Have you ever wondered why no one's seen Byakuran in action, yet he still managed to take over the Sicilian Mafia, and thus Vongola?" the redhead queried in return, but didn't let Lal Mirch answer as she continued. "Yet _somehow_ he hasn't managed to take over the 'Ndrangheta or Camorra. Why is that? It can't just be because of me and my Guardians, or even the size of either syndicate. Can you answer that question, Lal Mirch?"

Her gaze was piercing and Lal Mirch found herself swallowing dryly. "The reason for not _doing_ anything to stop the War isn't because we _can't_ ," Tania began again, voice flat and expression blank. "But because we chose an enemy we _know_ rather than one we _didn't_. Byakuran is very much like a Hydra; you cut off one head, another grows in its place. Tsunayoshi and I _both_ agreed that it would be better if me and my own stayed away and out of sight until there was an opportunity to cut out the heart rather than the heads.

"The rules of the Alliance between the Vongola and the 'Ndrangheta were never divulged to the masses. In fact, many didn't even _know_ there was an alliance, so when Byakuran waged war on the Sicilian Mafia, _my_ people were able to fade into the background. Instead of showing our hand, we decided to watch and investigate."

Lal Mirch furrowed her brow, as much as she didn't want to admit it, everything the redhead said made sense, but it didn't stop the rage and _hurt_ over Colonnello. "Investigate?" the blue haired woman asked somewhat sharply. "Investigate _what_?"

Tania raised an eyebrow coolly, folding her arms over her chest and answering, tone edged with warning, " _Byakuran_. There was _no way in hell_ that man came out of fucking _nowhere_ with the power to overthrow the Sicilian Mafia. That's not even taking in the factor of the sheer technological requirements for the radiation that disrupted the Tri-Ni-Set, that he _somehow managed to infect the air with_. There should have been some kind of warning to his coming of power, instead he pops out of nowhere and fucking _murders Tsunayoshi_. There's no way in _hell_ I'm gonna _not_ investigate."

The longer she had talked the harsher her voice had become, but what was truly terrifying was the fact that her voice never got _louder_. Reborn clenched his jaw at the reminder of his student's death, but his anger over the fact didn't stop him from noticing the sheer amount of _grief_ in Tania's voice at the mere mention of the brunette's death. He would also have to question her more on the odd tone and word choice for the non-Tri-Ni-Set radiation she had used.

However, at that point he decided it would be better to open a new line of questioning, since she was being so forthcoming. "What kind of Alliance was it between the Vongola and the 'Ndrangheta? What _exactly_ did it entail?"

There was a beat of silence where Tania's face morphed into one of utter confusion and she stared at the hitman with incomprehension. "...Marriage...?" she answered slowly, voice tilting at the end in a slight question as she got a sudden sinking sensation in her stomach.

Reborn narrowed his eyes at her, not liking the fact that she was looking at him like _he should have known that_. "A political one?" he queried somewhat idly.

She was looking at him with utter bafflement as she blurted out in askance, "What? _No_. We weren't _stupid_!"

Tania was beginning to realize that the _whole reason_ Reborn had been acting so fucking _hostile_ wasn't because he was being _obstinate_ , but because he literally _did not_ know what he _should_. Somebody should've already _told_ him about the "Alliance" and just _what_ that meant! Marianna should have- _and_ there was the issue, the redhead realized, fighting the urge to slam her head against the table repeatedly.

Marianna was first and foremost a _Mist_ , polarized or not.

Granted, she had probably been distracted by other things at the time, but by the time she had realized that she had _forgotten_ she had decided it'd be too entertaining. Tania would have preferred if the blonde had picked a _better time_ to pull something like this, but it really was all about the _timing_ for the Mist.

"So," Reborn began slowly, face set in a total deadpan of incredulous disbelief. "You married out of love."

Tania sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration, and ruffling the short locks in the back. "Yes," she answered shortly. "I would not - _will not_ \- settle for anything less." She looked the hitman in the eye at this, face set in a steely resolve of _truth_ , and Reborn found he could actually believe she _was_ telling the truth.

But there was still one matter in which he needed clarification if he _was_ actually to believe it as the truth. "Then why hide it?" he asked seriously. He wasn't talking about now in the future, but the _alliance_. She had stated that the alliance had never been divulged in both detail and there actually being one to any of the masses (which could mean anyone, really). That meant they had _hid_ the fact that she and Tsuna were _married_.

Tania let out another sigh, rubbing her forehead this time and closing her eyes. "You have to understand," she began. "I was considered _very_ young when I united all the 'Ndrinas together under the banner of Laganà. It was only just after I _had_ that we decided to marry. We had been discussing it for a while even _before_ the unification, but it wasn't until _after_ that we finally did. I will _never_ regret marrying Tsunayoshi, but the timing was very much a mistake.

"We couldn't possibly make the marriage public in any way; it would have destroyed all of my work and effort for the unification. The 'Ndrinas would've seen the marriage as the Sicilian Mafia trying to take over rather than that of simply a _marriage_. To them, it would've been entirely political, with me as simply the poster child, rather than the _leader_. It would've been _disastrous_. The fallout would have been worse than what the 'Ndrangheta already had been.

"So we decided to keep it a secret, only telling those close to us. By the time things had settled enough with my people where I _could_ inform them of the marriage, Byakuran came to be and we made different plans. Our marriage would remain secret and me and mine would pull back."

Reborn hummed, "I see."

And he did. The political nightmare it would have been if they had revealed their marriage right after only _just_ unifying the 'Ndrangheta would have been catastrophic. The feuds and wars fought between just the 'Ndrinas would've spilled over and the Mafia would've been thrown into complete chaos. The Vedince would have been hard pressed to shut it down before it bled over into the civilian world. Bitter resentment would have seen to the decimation of the Laganà and more than likely the entire Sicilian Mafia, before they turned on each other.

So. His student had gotten married (out of _love)_ to the woman who united the 'Ndrangheta. How the hell had the brat managed _that_?

"Honestly, you should've already _known_ all of this," Tania muttered irritably, looking entirely frustrated with the fact. "Marianna or Yamamoto should have filled you in when you first arrived and didn't appear to be _leaving_ any time soon."

The hitman soaked in that little tidbit of information and felt his eyebrow twitch. "Then is there anything else I _should_ know?" he asked dryly.

She wrinkled her nose at him and shot back irritably, "How the hell should I know what you actually know or don't?"

"Humor me," he responded flatly.

The redhead narrowed her eyes at him, briefly flicking her gaze over at Lal Mirch, who was watching them with somewhat wide eyes and a vague bafflement, and then promptly lent back in her chair. Her lips slowly curled into a smirk and she raised one finger, " _Well_ , Shamal is currently with his _wife_ , Donata, my _Lightning Guardian_ , in Calabria keeping a low profile." She raised another finger, enjoying the choked noise from Lal Mirch and the wide eyed shock of Reborn's expression. "My Storm Guardian, Carmen and _her_ husband are also in Calabria protecting Iemitsu and Nana. Marianna and Takeshi got themselves hitched shortly before me and Tsunayoshi, while Adele and Hayato did the same at some point (though their story of _how_ changes whenever you ask)."

With each little fact she said, the redhead raised another finger, while Lal Mirch was gaping a little at the sudden influx of information, and Reborn was lamenting his choice in Guardians for his student. "My _soru_ , Palmira, is currently underground with the _Varia_ , and married to _Dino_ of the Cavallone. Jessica, on the other hand, is best not to talk about relationship wise, and you should, in fact, probably stay away from her altogether unless absolutely necessary. I think that's about it for now. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know." Then, dryly she tacked on, "Anything else you want to know?"

Reborn fought the urge to repeatedly slam his head onto the table, and instead rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What kind of training are you planning for Tsuna? And will the breaking of the seal have any adverse effects?" he asked, deciding to shelve any and all other questions until he could wrap his head around the various marital ties between the Vongola Guardians and the Laganà 'Ndrina, and the fact Shamal had actually _settled down in marriage_. That wasn't even taking in the fact that apparently his _other_ stupid student got _married_ too.

Tania smirked at him, looking entirely too amused at his aggravation. "The seal breaking has increased the amount of flames Tsunayoshi has access too, which is both good and _bad_ ," the redhead started, notably not starting with _what_ she was going to teach the teen, making Reborn glower at her slightly (her smirk only widened further, showing a hint of teeth). "If we're not careful Tsunayoshi could easily burn up and I mean that _literally_. His body isn't used to the large amount of flames he now has and until he adjusts to that, he will not be doing _any_ fighting."

Lal Mirch looked like she was going to object to that, but Tania's face had grown serious and she pinned the woman with a lethal glare. " _He won't be fighting_ ; do I make myself clear?" Tania repeated, leaning forward just the slightest bit. "I will not have him _dying_ on me because you want to _rush_. His training so far has been _toeing_ the line, and I'm putting a stop to it _now_. His completion of the Trials has made it pertinent that if he expends himself out now he's liable to just shut down."

She leaned back, face impassive, but eyes glittering with a steely resolve. "Right now, he's at a pivotal point in his development. He needs to learn how to access his flames without the crutch of _pills_ (her lips curled in a sneer, as if the item in question had personally offended her) or a _bullet_. Until that point? He's not fighting. Not with his flames at least."

"Oh?" Reborn queried, wondering just what this woman was thinking.

Tania rested her chin on the palm of her hand, leaning on the table and hummed. "Tsunayoshi's weak physically. He can take a beating, but without his flames, _his_ attacks are about as harmless as being hit with a feather," she stated bluntly, and Reborn pursed his lips to stop the snort of laughter from escaping. "While we're working on better harnessing his flames, I will be training him in hand to hand combat as well. It will help him get stronger physically, and if he ever gets in a situation where he _can't_ use his flames, he won't be defenseless."

"And this will be enough?" Reborn asked. It all sounded so _simple_ and nothing like what he had in mind, or like _any_ of his _usual_ methods. He twitched slightly when the redhead stared at him silently, gaze piercing yet shuttered and face a blank mask. The Sky was disturbingly good at keeping her emotions and thoughts hidden and it was unlike any Sky the hitman had ever met, who usually showed some kind of emotion to help their manipulations along. Oh, he had no doubt that she was just as manipulative as any other Sky, but he had yet to figure out just _how_ she worked _her_ Harmony Factor.

She wasn't like Tsuna, who didn't even realize he was doing it, as it was unconscious and not evident as it was _pure intent_. Nor was she like the _Nonno_ had been; kindly grandfather with a ruthless streak a mile wide; you didn't even realize you were being manipulated. Xanxus hadn't developed his brand of manipulation, to filled with _rage_ and _grief_ and the Wrath was stronger than the Harmony. Iemitsu was similar to the _Nonno_ , hiding behind a mask of stupidity and devil-may-care attitude, when he was actually a callous killer, and had no problems destroying someone emotionally ( _just look at Nana and Tsuna_ , his mind whispered tauntingly).

But Tania. She was controlled; didn't show anything she didn't want to. And that was _dangerous_. It wasn't like Luce ( _had to control everything-shesawthefuture-of_ course _everyone should dance to her tune - she knew_ best _\- angerhurtwhydidyoubetrayus_ me _)_. She was contained, yet somehow he got the feeling that he was still dancing to her tune, but he couldn't figure out _how_.

Her lips curled in a thin smile ( _no emotion - in control_ ) and she answered, "It will be. It sounds simple and _easy_ , but just learning to _control_ your flames goes a long way. I refuse to be observed for the first few days, they are the most critical, but after that feel free to come watch." With a grace that reminded Reborn of a serpent or perhaps a python, the redhead stood, eyeing the two for a moment. "That's it for now, I'm going to go check on Marianna and Adele, but it's best that you don't bother any of us these first few days."

She inclined her head at them and then left the room, steps silent. Reborn probably wouldn't realize it until later that she had mostly given him superficial information. She only stated relationships, not _how_ they happened, or really _when_ either, and she had easily steered the conversation away from Byakuran and the inconsistencies surrounding the man. He hadn't even asked why Tsunayoshi had entrusted the Vongola Rings to _her_ , or how they were destroyed.

Either he had forgotten about the question in the face of everything else, or he didn't think it really mattered at this point in time. To be honest, she wasn't so sure that the latter was true. If the group that had destroyed the rings originally found out they existed once more, who's to say they won't strike again? If they had to worry about some unknown group on top of Byakuran, it'd be a _massacre_.

And she hadn't mentioned it earlier, but Byakuran had been toeing the borders of Calabria. Nothing big, but Carmen had been worried. To her it seemed like he was testing the waters. One of the major mysteries around Byakuran was the fact that he didn't actually _do_ anything with the underworld aspect he had taken over. Oh, he took it over, but mostly things had stayed the same, if a bit more active in the _business_ side of things.

The biggest things he had done was hunting after the Vongola Rings and disrupting the Tri-Ni-Set with the radiation that killed the Arcobaleno. With both of those actions (though the former was more consequential) the man had successfully put the world off balance. But it was because of those actions that Tania realized something _bigger_ was going on. The only part missing from Byakuran's vendetta were the _Mare Rings_.

And she had the gut feeling that he was in possession of those rings, even though they had been missing since Luce became the Sky Arcobaleno. (wro _ngwrongwrongsoemthingsnotright- whathappened- they need to be protected- i have to find them wherearethey -wrongwroNGWRONGWRON- MUSTPROTECT_ ) Tania's stride stuttered just the tiniest bit, but she ignored it and there was no one around to catch the miniscule move.

Unseen, a light glow of orange pulsed from the ring hidden under her shirt.

 **XX**

" **What** is it?" Jessica asked flatly into the phone, leaning back in the chair in the kitchen, feet propped on the chair across from her. Kyoko and Haru were making dinner under the Sun User's supervision, but only Kyoko was comfortable in the brunette's presence. ( _she was familiar - warm and caring - Ryohei_ ) Haru, however, couldn't bring herself to relax near the woman, whose emotionally flat face gave her the creeps and sent shivers running down her spine.

The teen knew she was safe or Tsuna-san would have never trusted Jessica to watch over them, but there was something about her that just sent the brunette girl bad vibes or something. Her smile never reached her eyes, her eyes never smiled, and there was brittleness around the edges that reminded her of her dad after her mom had died. It made her uncomfortable, especially with the way the older woman watched them sometimes.

Haru wasn't sure how to name the emotion in the green eyes that watched them occasionally with an intensity that made her cringe. Something inside her shied away from the watchful gaze, almost as if to protect itself, and that made her subconsciously wary of the woman. ( _unbalanced-scorching warmth-not good not good - get away before you get burned - getawaygeTAWAYGETAWAYGETAW-)_

"- _making me nervous._ "

"...That's not comforting," Jessica returned neutrally, shuffling some of the papers in her hands absently, not really paying attention to any of the words printed out. "What of that other thing Tania asked about?" the Sun User asked, mindful of the two girls in the same room, who were more than likely unconsciously listening in.

" _...He's planning something. I'm just not sure what, but I have the feeling it's not going to end well. Donata's been getting twitchy over it, and becoming overly territorial._ " There was a pause on the other side of the line, before the Storm Guardian continued in a quieter voice, " _I'm getting restless myself. Having Tani overseas without us with that big of a threat out there is grating on my nerves. Having Iemitsu here isn't helping either._ "

Jessica frowned, fingers twitching in an aborted move of clenching tightly around the papers in hand. "...Just bear with it for a little longer. I'll see if I can get Tania to do _something_ , but right now is really not a good time," she finally responded after a somewhat stilted pause.

" _Why is that? What's going on exactly? There have been some really disturbing rumors floating around the underground,_ " Carmen warned, and Jessica's frown deepened. That wasn't good. It was bad enough the Millefiore knew about the kidlings coming back in time, the rest of the world didn't need to know it too.

"Quell those rumors, Carmen," the Sun snapped sharply, fighting to reign in the growing unease building in her stomach, and not missing the flinch Haru did at her tone of voice.

" _Roger that._ "

There was a click as the Storm User hung up, and Jessica ran an irritated hand through her bangs, letting out a gusty sigh. A steaming cup of tea was placed in front of her, and she glanced up at Kyoko who smiled at her worriedly. The brunette eyed her for a moment before giving her a thankful smile that barely twitched the corners of her lips. She hummed as took a sip, noting that the auburn haired teen had subconsciously infused the tea with her unfurling Sun Flames. "Thank you, Kyoko."

Haru shot her an unreadable look, but Kyoko's smile lost some of its worry as she chirped cheerfully enough, "You're welcome!"

The door to the kitchen slid open with a hiss, and Tania stepped through the doorway, a small frown on her face. Her eyes moved to Kyoko and she said, "Tsunayoshi won't be joining you for dinner." The girl pouted somewhat but nodded, jabbing her elbow none to gently into Haru's side to stop the other teen from spouting something no doubt rude. Kyoko was not so oblivious to notice the vicious jealousy the brunette held in regards to Tania-san, and she wasn't going to stand for it.

Kyoko liked Haru as a friend, but she could admit that the girl got ridiculous over the stupidest things. Like the whole Mafia thing; Haru believed it, but didn't seem to take it all that seriously, and it made Kyoko frown. Adele had not sugar coated her words when she was explaining things; the blonde had stated bluntly that they were currently at _war_. A passive one at the moment, but that could change in a second, and to Kyoko that was all she needed to strengthen her resolve.

She still remembered the blood coating her hands ( _Tsuna-kun was bleeding ohgod there was blood it wasn't stopping what was she supposed to do ohmygod-_ ) and the battle that had raged above her head, and she wasn't going to allow herself to ever be that helpless again. Even if it meant simply staying in the base and out of sight if they were ever attacked, or even in general, she would do it if it meant that her _boys_ would be able to not worry.

But if there was a chance that there was something she _could_ do, she would take it with both hands and never let go.

Something deep inside her flared to life, warmth flooding her entire body, and she noticed that Tania was looking at her with serious eyes, and Jessica had a small, sharp, but _proud_ smile tugging at her lips. Haru was simply giving her a somewhat gimlet stare and rubbing her side sulkily. Tania inclined her head slightly, silently telling the teen she would speak to her later, and out loud saying, "Reborn and Lal Mirch will join you here in a moment, but I need to speak with Jessica."

"Okay, Tania-san!" Kyoko chirped brightly, ushering Haru back over to the preparations for dinner, and thus distracting the brunette from the two older women leaving.

Jessica gave Tania a pensive look and said blandly, "Carmen called." The two had reached one of the currently empty offices and Tania settled on top of the desk in the room, while Jessica leaned against the arm of the couch pressed against the wall.

"How is she?" Tania asked quietly, flames swelling to life and settling around the room in a warm cocoon. Jessica relaxed into the warmth, her tattered flames soothed by the Harmony.

"She's getting restless. Byakuran has started pushing forward against our borders, but we haven't lost anyone," the brunette answered, fiddling with the end of her braid, having pulled it over her shoulder as she talked. "Donata's told her that Mukuro _is_ planning something, and it's probably something stupid, but she doesn't actually know _what_ it is he's planning." Jessica paused here, and then added quietly, "Iemitsu is making Carmen uncomfortable, especially with you being over here in Japan, rather than in Italy with her."

Tania winced, closing her eyes and running a hand through her hair roughly. Jessica grimaced, unhappy with making her Sky feel guilty, but knowing it needed to be said. "I'll give her a call," the redhead murmured, chewing on her lip in frustration. "Do you-" she stopped, frowning sharply, and Jessica narrowed her eyes.

"Do I what?" she queried sharply.

Tania shot her an unreadable look, before repeating, "Do you mind working with Lambo, and if they wish, Kyoko and Haru, with their flames?"

Jessica slowly raised an eyebrow, before pointing out blandly, "Haru's flames are actually still latent, Tania."

There was a pause, then: "Just Kyoko then."

Jessica bit her cheek to stop herself from laughing loudly (though it was something she hadn't done in a long time - the memories were too painful - too _fresh_ still). "Are you holding a grudge against the younger Haru for what the older one did?" the Sun User asked drily, lips twitching in an effort to hide her smile.

Tania pursed her lips, studiously not looking at her friend, and muttered, "It's not my fault that woman can't take no for an answer." There was another pause and the redhead added petulantly, "Besides, she makes Tsunayoshi uncomfortable with her _crush_ (the word was spat derisively and with great indignation)."

Jessica bit her cheek again and managed to get out, "Are-are you _jealous_ , Tani?" Tania's shoulders tensed and she crossed her arms, an uncomfortable look crossing her face as she turned her head to the side. The Sun User noted the woman's embarrassment and wisely subsided for the moment (it wasn't going to stop her from telling Adele and Marianna when she saw them next, though). "I don't mind working with Lambo and Kyoko with their flames," Jessica answered the previous question easily enough.

Tania turned back to her, posture still stiff, and asked softly, "You sure?"

"I'll just be designated babysitter," she responded with easily, some of her old cheer coming back.

Instead of the intended smile the brunette had been going for, Tania blanched, grimacing and spitting out, "Sorry-"

"It's _okay_ ," Jessica interrupted, smile fading into something sad and regretful. "I truly don't mind, Tania. It... _helps_ being with them." Tania pursed her lips, but nodded jerkily in acquiesce. But the guilt gnawing at her stomach would never fade, and would only continue to eat at her all of her life. She needed to get away, even if only for a little bit. She needed to be with someone that didn't bring all of her mistakes to the forefront and throw them in her face.

Abruptly, she got off the desk and said, "I'm going to dine with Kyouya tonight. When you see Marianna and Adele send them my way please." Jessica nodded easily, watching as her Sky left the room without so much as looking her way. She wished she could soothe away the pain, but there was that tiny, tiny, selfish part of her that _did_ blame her Sky for the death of _Sku_ -NO. She wasn't going to think about it. She just - just _couldn't_.

Tania wasn't sure how she managed to make it to Kyouya's part of the Base, but she did and Kusakabe took one look at her and had her seated at one of the low tables and a steaming cup of tea placed in front of her before she even realized she was there. Mechanically she took the cup and brought it up, the familiar scent invading her senses. Slowly, she relaxed and her turbulent flames eased back into their calm state.

Kyouya sat across from her, eyeing her coolly over his own cup of tea, his flames spread over the room and making it his territory. It was an all too familiar setting and it allowed for the redhead to relax for the first time since Tsunayoshi's-

She ended the thought before it could finish, soothing the jolt in her flames. She sucked in a breath, before releasing it slowly from her nose, eyes closing and flames unfurling like a flower blooming in the early morning rays. Kyouya's flames prevented her own from leaking out into the rest of the base, where it would no doubt wreak havoc with its high purity and unsettled state. The Cloud User didn't even so much as twitch at the sudden wash of Sky Flames, and Kusakabe was left untouched from his spot just outside the door.

This was not an unusual happening for the two, especially after Tsunayoshi's _death_. While Kyouya was a Classic Cloud, and Stella a Polarized Cloud, the two were alike enough that Kyouya gave Tania the same security and calm that her own right-hand did. It was something that a lot of people didn't get at first, especially if they had no idea that Stella was Tania's right-hand. Some had even murmured that the Sky and Cloud were lovers, but that wasn't even close to the truth. (Tsunayoshi had laughed so hard he had nearly choked, Stella hadn't been much better.)

The two had simply grown familiar to each other because of their respective lovers.

It wasn't until Tania had finished her tea that she pulled out her phone to call her Storm Guardian, ignoring the narrowed eyed glare from Kyouya. Carmen answered after the second ring with a hopeful, "Tani?"

Tania grimaced slightly, but responded evenly, "Carmen."

There was a pause, then a sigh, before the other woman pouted, "I suppose this _isn't_ a call to tell me that Donata and me can come to Japan."

"Sorry," Tania answered, lips twisted in a frown. "Jessica let me know what was happening. I need you to have our people start pulling back slowly, only leaving the bare minimum to take care of our investments. When you spread the word, switch with Donata."

Carmen made a confused, but faintly hopeful noise, "Switch?"

Tania blinked and then furrowed her brow, refraining from pulling the phone away to look at it incredulously, "Yes, _switch_. I should've had Donata and Shamal watching over Iemitsu and Nana, not you. Donata can ignore the man for a longer period of time than you, and Shamal's an unaligned Mist, so better equipped to flat out refuse. You can do it, but I know you don't _like_ body guarding someone, Carmen, especially if its someone like Iemitsu."

"Ah, she told you that, huh," Carmen muttered, somewhat embarrassed.

"I should've known it would happen, so I'm sorry," Tania replied easily, ignoring the guilt churning her stomach at failing her Guardian in something so _simple_. Carmen simply made a noise in response, and Tania continued, "If Mukuro needs help, use the Ring."

There was a shocked silence on the other end, before Carmen blurted out, "Wait, _seriously_? I thought we weren't going to!"

Tania rubbed her forehead, leaning forward on the table, and saying tiredly, "If you can avoid it, do so, but if you can't, try to make it _not_ overly obvious, please. If you can't, you can't, but at least try." She paused, lips pursed, and Carmen made an inquiring noise through her shock. Tania stared down at the table pensively and added, "If you _do_ use the Ring - see if it - if it _resonates_."

"You don't think he-?" Carmen started, cutting herself short before she even finished, stomach rolling with nausea at the very _thought_. If he really did - it would be - it was - dear _god_ -

Tania grimaced, and admitted reluctantly, "It's a theory I'm considering, and is unfortunately looking to be true the more I find out."

Carmen sucked in a harsh breath. "Oh...kay. Okay," she exhaled noisily, before inhaling sharply and then letting it out again. "O _kay._ I'll try to be discreet if I _have_ to use it - but Tani." Carmen paused and then continued more quietly, concerned, "Donata is really worried over whatever she thinks Mukuro is planning on doing - chances are I _will_ have to use the Ring - and - well…"

"Chances are you'd have to use the Ring in a rather _spectacular_ way," Tania finished tiredly. "I understand - just _if you can_."

Carmen hummed, "Got it. _Ciao_ , Tani."

" _Ciao_ , Carmen," Tania ended the call, staring at it silently for a moment and gathering in scattered thoughts. After a minute, she straightened and turned to look at Kyouya, who was calmly sipping his tea, eyes closed. At her stare, however, slate grey eyes opened and he returned her gaze with a vague resigned look. She narrowed her eyes and then said lowly, an undercurrent of true _fury_ to her tone, "Tell me _everything_ , Kyouya."

"As you wish," he murmured in return, setting his tea down.


End file.
